Return of the Werehog
by pixiepaw
Summary: Eggman catches Sonic off guard and turns him into a monster! Strange things start happening as old friends and enemies start to reappear. Tails is going to need all the help that he can get to save Sonic before it's too late!
1. A Sprint through Spagonia

**A sprint through Spagonia**

Sonic and Tails were walking through the streets of Spagonia on a lovely summer day. "I can't believe we're in Spagonia again!" Tails exclaimed happily.

"I know! I almost forgot how great it is here!" Sonic replied, grinning and cracking his knuckles excitedly. He jumped into the air, and when he landed, Sonic dashed into an alley, running just for the fun of it.

"Hey! Wait for me Sonic!" Tails called, laughing. He jumped up and twisted his two fluffy tails together. Tails started to fly after Sonic, not wanting to get left too far behind. Sonic looked over his shoulder to smile at Tails, then speed up. Tails could tell that Sonic was in the mood for a race, so he too speed up. The sun was shining brightly as the two friends sprinted all over the orange-roofed town.

Sonic finally decided to let Tails catch up, skidding to a stop and turning around to watch the young fox catch up. Tails almost crashed into Sonic as soon as he turned around. "I'm not as slow as you think!" Tails teased his buddy.

"I guess you showed me!" Sonic replied. "Hey, do you want something to eat? I know I'm starved from all that running," Tails just nodded, feeling breathless from the race. "Okay then, lets go find some good food. There must be a restaurant somewhere around here," Sonic rubbed his belly, then began running again through the town, but this time slower, so he could look for restaurant signs.

"Sonic! Here's one," Tails called from farther back behind Sonic, pointing at a red and green brick building.

"Great! Let's go in." Sonic trotted back to where Tails was, and they walked in together. The menu wasn't half bad, but Sonic wanted to leave because they didn't have his favorite food; chili dogs.

"Sonic, I don't think that many restaurants serve chili dogs, so why don't we just stay? I'm sure you'll find _something_ that you like!" Tails tried to convince Sonic to stay. Sonic stood up, but sat down decisively. They ordered the same dish, since Tails found something that he would like, and Sonic just wasn't willing to look for his own dish. "See, that wasn't so bad!" Tails remarked after they had finished their meals. Sonic was staring out of the window, looking bored.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Not that bad! But let's get moving again!" Sonic jumped up to his feet, accidentally bumping into the table, which caused the silverware and plates to rattle. Thankfully, nothing broke. "Everything's fine over here!" Sonic announced loudly to the people that had turned to see what the disturbance was. More quietly, he said, "Let's go, Tails." Tails stood up and followed Sonic out the door, because they had already paid for their meal.

They stepped out into cool air, a sunset in the horizon. "Wow, that's a really beautiful sunset!" Tails cried out admiringly. Sonic put his hands on his hips and gazed up at it.

"It sure is, Tails. It sure is."


	2. The Differences are like Night and Day

**The differences are like Night and Day**

Sonic and Tails watched the sun on it's journey to some other place on Mobius. "I think that it's nice to slow down sometimes, and admire the details," Sonic admitted. The sunset majestically colored the sky with pink, red, orange, and yellow.

"Me too," Tails agreed as the sun finally disappeared from their view.

The day wasn't done yet though. Fireworks started to explode all over the sky, some of them taking different shapes, others sprawled abstractly across the sky, painting it with sparkling colors. The most impressive one was a portrait of the giant clock tower that dominated Spagonia with it's beauty and height. Sonic oohed and aahed with Tails over the fireworks, but Tails noticed that he seemed distracted.

"Is something wrong, Sonic?" Tails asked his friend curiously.

"No, I just," Sonic paused to ponder what he wanted to say. _That's weird,_ Tails thought,_ Sonic usually says what's going on right away! _"I guess I just feel tired. There's nothing wrong Tails!" Sonic finally said, and patted Tails' arm playfully.

"Well, if that's all, why don't we find somewhere to stay?" Tails suggested.

"Nah, I want to walk around a little more." Sonic replied, and started to sprint away.

Tails twisted his tails together and began to follow Sonic happily. "This is great, because now we can see the fireworks even better!" Tails called excitedly from behind Sonic. Tails dropped down to the street so he could give his tails a rest from flying. Sonic noticed and slowed down considerably so he wouldn't leave his friend in his dust.

The fireworks show was still going on, and the sky was growing darker quickly. Sonic and Tails kept on walking until they saw a sign in the distance. "I'll go check it out," Sonic said, and then he dashed over to the sign, paused to read it, and came back to Tails. "If you're up for a little more adventure, how about we go into that park?" Sonic asked.

"Sounds fun!" Tails replied. The duo continued to walk to the entrance of the park. There were three paths for them to choose from at the entrance.

"How about we go with the middle one?" Sonic asked, but he didn't even give Tails a chance to reply, grabbing the fox's arm. Sonic started to run.

"No! Sonic! AHH!" Tails yelled, not used to going that fast outside of his airplane. Sonic grinned mischievously at Tails, and sped up a little more. "Argh! Stop Sonic!" Tails cried.

"Aw, just when I was having fun!" Sonic said, faking sadness. He came to an abrupt stop, and Tails jumped up into the air and started to hover. Sonic looked up at Tails, leaning back a little. There were still a few fireworks going up into the sky, illuminating the sky behind Tails.

"I guess that was fun, you just surprised me Sonic!" Tails looked a little embarrassed.

"I knew that is was nothing that you couldn't handle!" Sonic replied.

"Wow, this park is so neat!" Tails exclaimed happily.

"It is a pretty cool place," observed Sonic, still looking at the scenery. They continued down the cobblestone path through the park as the sky kept on darkening overhead. The dark sky made an excellent backdrop for the fireworks, exploding with even more color than before. They started to hear the slightest notes of music.

"What could that be?" Sonic mused out loud. The music got louder and louder until finally they walked into a courtyard like area. There was a gazebo in the middle of the courtyard where a small band of violinists and guitarists and a flute player were playing cheerful tunes.

Sonic and Tails walked to the edge of the courtyard and sat down on a bench. Sonic tapped his foot in time with the upbeat song. Tails closed his eyes and swayed to the happy tune. After a few minutes had passed by, the fireworks show had ended and the moon had crept into full view.

Sonic's foot had stopped tapping, even though the music continued. Tails slowly opened his eyes, as if he had fallen asleep. "Do you..hear that?" Sonic asked Tails quietly. He pointed to the left, where he thought the slight sound was coming from. It sounded like someone was crying.

"I do Sonic," Tails looked worried.

"How about we go check it out? Someone might need our help!" Sonic said, standing up. Tails stood up too, waving at the lead musician. The violinist nodded back gratefully.

Sonic walked out of the courtyard on a path that led to the left. The sound of someone crying got louder as they got nearer. "Man, I hope this person is okay!" Tails said worriedly. They kept on walking, until the person was right in front of them. The person was hunched over and sitting down. The person's back was facing Sonic and Tails.

"Hey, are you alright?" Sonic called out. The person stood up. He was wearing a red coat with large gold buttons adorning it and black pants. He was wearing dark blue sunglasses and had a bushy orange mustache. He bent over and turned off a radio that was laying on the ground next to him, and the crying noise stopped.

"I'm quite fine, actually. How polite of you to ask!" The man bowed, mocking modesty. When he came back up, he started laughing a terrible ugly laugh. "Oh! Ho! Ho!"

Sonic raised a fist up angrily. "Eggman!"

Tails was mad too. "You tricked us! We were worried that a _real_ person was in trouble!"

"Oh, so I'm not a real person?" Eggman asked, but started laughing again before anyone could answer. Tails realized that he had misspoken, but decided that Eggman didn't deserve an apology.

"What are you doing here Eggman?" Sonic asked temperamentally.

"It's a long story, but I'll tell you anyway because I don't care about your time that I'm wasting." Eggman said, and started to tell his tale. "After you beat me last time, I decided that I'd look at some of my most successful plots that had almost finished you. There were quite a few that had done quite well- for the circumstances." Sonic rolled his eyes but didn't say anything. Eggman fixed Sonic with a glare and continued his story. "Since there were _so many_ good inventions, I decided that I would use them all! Successively, of course. I wouldn't want to spend all my money at the candy store at once, if you know what I mean. Now, onto the first part of my joyride! This is a very special invention that I've made just for today, based on one that I made years ago!" Tails cocked his head. _What's it going to be?_ He wondered, nervous.

Eggman pulled a slim remote out of a back pocket in his pants. "_This_ is part one of my scheme to rule the world!" Eggman aimed the front end of the remote at Tails. He pushed down the obnoxious red button on the top of the remote, and it started to make a whirring noise.

"Tails watch out!" Sonic charged and pushed Tails out of the way of a purple laser that shot out of the remote. "Rrrrgh!" The laser had grabbed Sonic in a weird sort of grasp that was making Sonic vibrate.

"Sonic!" Tails cried out. He tried to run to Sonic, but Sonic turned to look at him.

"RUN TAILS! GET AWAY FROM HERE!" Sonic yelled at his friend, not wanting him to see what Eggman was going to do. Tails had never heard Sonic yell so loudly at him, so he ran away as fast as he could.

"Ah, now that that two-tailed nuisance is gone, I can delight you with the physics of this wonderful machine!" Eggman told Sonic. Sonic managed to roll his eyes although he was being constantly shocked by the purple laser. "The last time I got my hands on a Chaos Emerald, I sucked all of the negative energy out of it, enough to make you revert to one of your... more evil forms. I channeled it into this remote, so that I could use the negative energy freely wherever I went. I think that I'll use it now. " Eggman smiled, and pressed the remote's big red button down all the way.

"Ahh!" Sonic was dropped to the ground and he couldn't muster the strength to get up.

"Bye-Bye now!" Eggman chuckled and climbed up into his hovercraft. It puttered at first, climbing up into the night sky slowly. "Ha ha ha ho!" Eggman crowed, and then he was gone.

Sonic lay in the middle of the cobblestone path, unable to move. He felt tingly from all of the shocks that he had received from the laser. He stared up at the sky, a dazzling amount of stars had appeared overhead. Sonic smiled, enjoying the view. _I'll make the best of it. It doesn't even seem like Eggman's contraption is going to work, although it did give me quite a zap! _He thought. His smile suddenly went away.

"W-Wha-?" Sonic's voice had dropped a few decibels and sounded growly. Sonic shivered, and his hand started to twitch. "What's happening?" Sonic cried, and purple waves began rolling all over his body. They transformed him slowly, his arms grew slightly longer and more muscular. Rough, dark colored fur started growing all over Sonic's spikes and down his arms and legs. "Rragh!" Sonic yelled. He felt energy coursing through his body, _This can't be too bad, I feel pretty good now!_ Sonic thought, and pushed himself up to his feet, his arms strangely stretching out longer than they were supposed to be.

"Aw man, not this again!" Sonic groaned in his new deep voice, recognizing his stocky, muscular new build as his werehog form. He rolled his eyes and took a step. He wobbled, and suddenly fell over.

Two hours later, the full moon was in the middle of the sky, it's pale beams glowing on Sonic's furry back.


	3. Hog Wild

**'Hog Wild**

The small band of musicians had finally decided to call it quits. They were used to playing late into the night, but when no one walked through the park they usually would stop playing and go home. The band was filing out of the gazebo and walked out of the courtyard. The all exited to the left, except for two of the violinists, who went to the right. The group who had exited to the left all felt chipper even though it was three a m in the morning. "I still can't believe that we saw Sonic the hedgehog!" the flutist squealed happily.

"And, he liked our music!" Commented the lead guitarist.

"So did his kid friend," added the lead violinist.

They were a few minutes into their walk home when the flutist gasped and screamed. "What is _that_?" The violinists and guitarists all crowded around her to see what she was talking about. Murmurs and whispers started up, all of them uncertain about the furry beast that was lying right in front of them. One of the guitarists, named Raimundo, picked up a stick and poked the spiky monster. It growled and rolled onto it's side. The girls in the band all gasped and grabbed at each other.

"Its all right, ladies. The beast is asleep." Raimundo assured the girls.

"I suggest that we leave before _it_ wakes up." said the lead guitarist. That statement was followed by everyone nodding vigorously. The band started walking down the path again, everyone leaving a wide berth between them and the creature.

Raimundo observed the furry beast closely as he walked by it. _Why does that _thing _look so familiar? _He mused to himself. Then he shrugged and followed his friends. _It's been a long day. I bet we're all just seeing things!_

**The next Day**

Tails paced back and forth in front of the giant clock tower of Spagonia in the early morning light. He felt frustrated and riddled with worry. _I shouldn't have listened to Sonic, I shouldn't have left!_ The thoughts went through his mind frequently. He sat down on a bench to stew over his thoughts. _I hope that Sonic's okay!_ Tails was worried that Eggman had done something horrible to Sonic, and that he would never see his best friend again.

"I know!" Tails shouted, suddenly jumping up from the bench. "I'll just ask around to see if anyone has seen Sonic! There's got to be someone who's seen him!" Tails felt euphoric until a leather shoe came flying past his head, followed by a cranky old woman yelling.

"Would you be quiet? Goodness knows, there's always got to be someone disturbing my beauty sleep at five in the morning!" Tails pinned his ears back, embarrassed.

"I'm sorry ma'am!" He called back. The window that the shoe had come flying out of was slammed shut without a reply. _Maybe I should wait a little longer until I go asking around, _Tails thought sensibly. He knew that he shouldn't go knocking on people's doors at five in the morning!

Three hours later, Tails had sat down on the bench and dozed off. His watch buzzed and woke him up, just as he had programmed in to do three hours earlier. Tails stretched out his arms and legs, yawning blissfully. "Ah," he sighed, blinking the sleepiness out of his eyes. "Mmm, Now I'll be able to find out if anyone's seen Sonic around!" He exclaimed, remembering his mission. He stood to his feet, and finally noticed how many people were in the square in front of the clock tower.

_Wow! There are lot's of people to ask now!_ Tails thought excitedly. He walked up to a friendly looking black and white bobtail cat. She was talking to another cat that was wearing baggy black clothing. "Uh, excuse me," Tails said, trying to get her attention. She turned her head and blinked her eyes in a surprised way.

"Yes?" She responded.

"Hi, my name is Tails, and I'm looking for my friend Sonic." Tails started out hopefully. When the girl's face remained in the same, he continued. "Sonic's a blue hedgehog with green eyes and red shoes. Does that ring any bells?" Tails finished.

"I'm sorry, I come from Chun Nan, I do not know your friend." The girl said, looking sorry for Tails.

"Okay, thanks for your time," Tails replied. His enthusiasm for finding Sonic was not even slightly dampened. He walked over to a teenage lion. The lion had an annoyed look on his face.

"Um, hello." Tails started, a little unsure of himself. The lion turned his blue eyed gaze to Tails.

"What do you want?" He asked in an annoyed way. The lion was in a rather large group that consisted of three preteen looking girls, two more teenage boys, and three pairs of parents plus one baby.

"If you're busy, I can leave," Tails said, noticing the group.

"Nah, go ahead. What is it?" The lion asked.

"Well, I'm looking for my friend, Sonic, and I was just going around and asking if anyone had seen him." Tails said. One of the girls turned at the mention of Sonic's name.

"Did you say Sonic?" The one girl questioned. She was a light brown cat with red goggles and blue eyes.

"Yeah, have any of you seen him?" Tails asked hopefully.

"Nope," both the lion and the cat answered at the same time. Tails let his ears drop down for a moment, but then saw someone else to ask.

Tails ran up to a light blue cat with chocolate brown hair and hazel eyes. "Hi, have you seen my friend? He's a blue hedgehog with green eyes, his name is Sonic!" The cat jerked a little at the mention of Sonic's name.

"I saw him! Sonic ran that way," She smiled and pointed at a path that led to the outskirts of the town. Tails grinned happily back at her and started to run down the path, but stopped suddenly and turned around. "Thank you, by the way!" He yelled to the girl.

"No problem!" She shouted back. Tails smiled again. He started to run down the path again, eventually twisting his tails together to go faster.

Tails remembered that he had left the Tornado 2.0 in Professor Pickle's garage. _I'll get it after I find Sonic!_ Tails kept on flying until he came to a split in the road. _I wonder which way Sonic went?_ He looked around for someone to ask. A petite cat with green eyes and a ring necklace walked up the right path.

"Excuse me, but could I ask you a question?" Tails tapped the cat on the shoulder.

"Oh, hi! What's your question?" The cat responded helpfully.

"Have you seen a blue hedgehog recently?" Tails asked. The cat widened her eyes and nodded vigorously.

"Oh, yes I have! He ran past me about ten minutes ago. He ran so close to me that I spun around like a top. I was so dizzy after that, it was crazy!" Tails smiled excitedly.

"So, Sonic went to the right?" Tails asked, waiting to confirm his question.

"Exactly!" The cat replied. Tails clenched his fists and beamed her a smile victoriously.

"Thanks!" Tails cried in excitement, twisting his tails together to zoom down the path. He was soon on the outskirts of Spagonia. He was tired out from flying so fast, so he dropped to the ground to give his tails a rest. He looked up, his eyes yearning to his his blue friend. Nothing. Tails looked down, disappointed. He sat down on the ground, his hands on his knees, sadly leaning forward when a voice came cheerily from behind him.

"Why so sad, pal? Were you looking for me?" Sonic leaned down over Tails, smiling. Tails jumped up and hugged Sonic.

"Sonic! Where were you? I was worried that Eggman had done something horrible to you!" Tails looked up at Sonic with his sky blue eyes twinkling happily.

"Eggman you say? When did we run into him?" Sonic asked, suddenly getting a blank look on his face. Tails looked at Sonic strangely.

"What do you mean? Eggman _caught _you last night, I'm sure he wouldn't just let you go!" Tails covered his mouth, trying to think. His face brightened up a few seconds later. "Oh! I get it, you're just pulling my leg! You really had me there for minute...Sonic?" Sonic looked at Tails with concern.

"Are you _sure_ that it was last night? All I remember is walking through the park... with the fireworks, and those musicians! Didn't we just go home after that? Because really, I can't remember anything after we left that courtyard." Sonic cocked his head thoughtfully.

"Sonic, don't you remember that Eggman captured you with that-that purple laser? Don't you remember what he did to you? I can't even answer the second question because you yelled at me to leave! Do you remember that?" Tails tried to jog Sonic's memory, hoping that he would be able to make Sonic remember.

"Actually, little buddy, I _do_ remember something!" Tails' eyes widened hopefully. "I remember that I woke up in the park this morning, as normal as I can be. Couldn't it be possible that you just had a really, really weird dream?" Sonic asked gently, knowing that what he said wasn't what Tails wanted to hear.

"Sonic, I think that Eggman did something to you that gave you slight amnesia!" Tails exclaimed, feeling like he couldn't get Sonic to believe him. Sonic shook his head.

"Sorry pal, I really don't think that would happen. How about we go for a run?" Sonic asked as the clock tower chimed twelve times. "We've got the rest of the day in front of us- let's not spend it on what may or may not have happened last night." Tails smiled weakly and shrugged.

"Sure, Sonic." Tails agreed, feeling defeated. Sonic began to set a blazing pace, starting to circle the outskirts of Spagonia. Tails paused for a moment, then twisted his tails together and followed Sonic, even more curious about the night before then he had been that morning.


	4. I am The Eggman

**I am the Eggman**

A few hours before Tails met up with Sonic, Eggman had flown his personal hovercraft hovercraft away from where he had transformed Sonic. "Ah, welcome home!" He said to himself as he approached his shining new Flying Impenetrable and Completely Sonic-Proofed Final Fortress, rebuilt from the time when Team Sonic and his friends destroyed it mercilessly. He flew his hovercraft into the loading dock of the ship that was barely visible to the untrained eye. Eggman knew exactly where it was though, of course, because when you build something by hand, you don't tend to forget about certain rooms.

Eggman squeezed out of his hovercraft, cramped by the tiny room. "Rrgh, I really should've made this dock larger!" Eggman complained. After he managed to crawl out of the hovercraft, he leaned over to get through the door that led to the rest of the ship. "Ooh!" Eggman said with pleasur when he stretched out and cracked his back. "That's better. Now to get down to business." Eggman said deviously, and scuttled to the observation deck that was on the front of the ship. He plopped himself down into a specially designed comfort chair and snatched up a laptop that lay next to his chair.

He opened up the laptop on his lap and entered in his very complicated and confidential password that he used for everything, '_EGGMAN_'. After the password screen went away, Eggman set to work on opening up his favorite robot's files. He had saved every single robot's schematics to his laptop. He started to pull up the document for Orbot and Cubot when suddenly the screen went black and the laptop died.

"Argh! Curse you stupid computer!" Eggman screamed at the dead laptop, his face red as a tomato. After a minute he was calm again, and he was confused. "Why did you die any way? Low battery?" Eggman looked at the laptop closer and noticed that the power wire wasn't actually plugged in. "Oh, I see! Eggman jumped to his feet and picked up the power wire, plugged it into the laptop, and sat down again with a sigh. He opened up the laptop again, and the password screen came up, requesting him to enter the password.

"Now what was my password again?" Eggman looked up at the ceiling for a moment with his index finger tapping his chin. "Oh! That's right, EGGMAN!" He announced, and typed that in. The password screen went away and he sat still for a moment, considering which robots he wanted to recreate first for ultimate ruler ship of the world and destruction of Sonic.

"I suppose I could start off by making a few companion robots... It does seem rather quiet and orderly in here," Eggman pulled up a _very old_ document. "Now, what's this?" He mused to himself. The document opened and Eggman raised an eyebrow at what he saw. There were two separate pictures, one of a tall robot that looked like a chicken, the other one was a short teal green robot with treads for feet and drills for hands.

"Those two were troublesome, and freeloaders, but little help is better than none!" Eggman decided. "I'll just make a few adjustments to their intelligence," Eggman said to himself, and began clicking and typing. After he was finished, he sent the document off to his new robot building machine. The new robots would be finished in a little less than two hours.

"Who else should I recreate?" Eggman asked himself. He remembered the last two assistants he had made, Orbot and Cubot. "Why not?" He said, opening the document that held the schematics for Orbot and Cubot. Eggman pressed down a key on his keyboard to send the document to his robot re creator. His vision slowly got blurry, then he finally closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep in his incredibly comfortable chair.

Meanwhile, Sonic was dashing all over Spagonia. Tails panted as he tried to keep up with his friend. Suddenly, Sonic came to a screeching halt, causing Tails to nearly crash into his spiky back.

"Whoops, almost got you there!" Sonic said, grinning at his pal. Tails smiled back.

"I think the Spagonians are getting tired of your restlessness, Sonic." Tails informed him in a kind way.

"Ooh, do you think so?" Sonic peered down from the orange roof that he was standing on to see quite a few flustered people and Mobians peeking out of their windows and stepping outside to see what was up.

"Hmm, maybe I'll just have to go running somewhere else." Sonic said decisively.

"That might be a good choice," Tails said before ducking his head down to avoid a pebble thrown by a short gray weasel.

"Hey!" Sonic shouted at the weasel. "Hero of Mobius here, and his best man!" Tails grimaced and tapped Sonic's shoulder. Sonic looked over at him with a puzzled expression.

"What?" He asked.

"Let's go, Sonic," He said quietly, ducking again when he spotted more pebbles out of the corner of his eye.

"Okay! Let's get juicin' kid!" Sonic shouted, and dashed off of the roof. He shot across a vast area of forest and grassland with Tails flying behind him. They came to a stop when Spagonia was only a speck in the horizon behind them.

"Now, what could that be?" Sonic asked with a sneer in his voice. Tails followed his friend's gaze, and notice a number of airships, varying from hugely large to tiny. The sun was slowly descending behind the airships.

"Now what does that remind you of?" Sonic prodded Tails.

"Final Fortress! But that couldn't be...right?" Tails exclaimed uncertainly. _I thought we destroyed that fleet with Team Rose, Team Dark, and the Chaotix!_

Meanwhile, on the deck of the largest ship, two robots conversed with each other curiously.

"Hey! Grounder, isn't that-"

"Duh! No, that's not him!"

"I have to say, he does look similar though. Are you sure it's not him?"

Eggman was jolted awake by two annoying voices. One was high and scratchy, the other was low and stupid sounding. He felt too tired to do anything though, so he continued to slump in his chair lazily. Two more voices joined the racket minutes later.

"Hello, who are you?"

"Well, I'm Grounder and that's-" A clanking noise was heard.

"Scratch. My name is Scratch. And you are-?"

"I'm Cubot!" A rambunctious voice yelled out.

"I am Orbot," a more refined voice said haughtily.

"Oh! Nice to meet 'cha!" Cubot yelled to Orbot.

"Excuse me Cubot, but we already know each other." Orbot replied.

"Oh, I thought that you looked familiar-now I know why!" Cubot exclaimed loudly.

Orbot coughed. "You dim-bot," he muttered quickly.

"Are you catching a cold Orbot?" Grounder asked.

"Of course not you idiot! Robots can't catch colds...right?" Scratch asked Orbot.

"No, no they do not." Orbot replied.

Eggman gritted his teeth together agitatedly. "I can't stand it anymore! Would you all just be quiet?" He shouted, jumping to his feet, face and angry red color. All four robots looked up, surprised. Grounder had just finished pulling down a long yellow lever. Red lights started flashing, and a loud siren started to scream.

"Who pulled that lever?" Eggman yelled, his face getting even redder. Grounder grinned sheepishly.

"I did!" He said, raising up his left hand and hopped up and down, making a clanking racket.

"Y-you did? Do you realize what that DOES?" Eggman asked Grounder. Grounder shook his head so hard that it spun around once or twice. "You IDIOT! That makes the ship go down to the ground, where it's completely vulnerable to Sonic!" Eggman shrieked angrily. Just as he said that, the airship rocked back and forth, making creaking noises. Everyone rushed to the giant window to see that Mobius was rushing up to greet the airship. Eggman scowled and jumped into his chair, strapping a seat belt across his chest. It was too late to pull the lever up, because the ship was far to large and heavy for it to be able to lift up again that fast.

"Get ready for a rough landing!" Eggman called to the four robots who were still gazing out of the window.

A creaking, screeching noise was heard when the airship crashed onto the surface of Mobius, along with general shaking and shivering which is to be expected from a crash. Everyone and everything was thrown to the floor, except for Eggman. He picked up a tablet device and scrolled through a security check on the ship. His face started to get red again.

"Great job, Grounder. You've wrecked my airships boosters. Now we're guaranteed to be down here, vulnerable to attack, for at least one day, until I fix this blasted thing." Eggman spoke in a quiet, almost venomous way. He glared at the robot. Grounder gave him a nervous smile and slowly started to back up.

"I mean, you- you had to know that would've brought the ship down, right?" Eggman had a confused expression. Grounder shrugged.

"Nope!" He answered.

Eggman slowly brought a hand up to his forehead. _How could I have built such a stupid robot? _

_ "_Then you really are a-"

"Monster!" Eggman was interrupted by Scratch, who was watching a black and white monster movie with Orbot and Cubot on a television screen. A furry beast ripped through a metal wall like it was mere paper.

"Wow, this is such a great movie!" Scratch cried.

"And it has such awesome sound effects!" Added Cubot.

A look of puzzlement crossed Eggmans face when sirens and lights started going off on the ship, seconds after the monster in the movie ripped through the metal wall.

"Wait a minute, that's not a normal TV, and that's no movie! That's my security monitor, and that is real life!" He yelled with realization.

"Hey, could you be quiet? I'm trying to watch this!" Grounder complained, completely ignoring Eggman's revelation.

"Look at that monster fight the robot!" Orbot commented excitedly. Eggman leaned over and gasped at what he saw. His ship's defense system - a fully upgraded Metal Sonic, complete with laser beam eyes and beam-cannon arms – was being carelessly thrown aside, already deactivated by the creature.

He growled and shoved the four robots out of the way, glaring at the monitor. The monster looked around, then suddenly noticed the camera that monitored his every move. He reached up a fist and slung it at the camera, his arm stretching out to reach. The monitor screen went fuzzy in front of Eggman, Orbot, Scratch, Cubot, and Grounder. A wolfish howl was heard from the lowest deck, and the scientist and four robots feared that they would be detected.

"Do NOT make a sound!" Eggman whispered maliciously to his cronies.

"Hey! Be quiet! You just said to not make a sound and you-" Cubot's mouth was covered by Orbot nervously. Eggman started to approach Cubot when a high pitched screeching noise was heard. All eyes turned to the single, thick door of the observation deck. They all caught their breath when they noticed four scratch marks on the glass window of the door. A single green eyes was able to be seen for three seconds, but then it disappeared.

"Where'd he go?" Scratch asked, using a rare whisper.

"He, I can't believe this, but he's left the ship!" Eggman said incredulously.

_What was I doing? _Sonic asked himself. _It was like, like I couldn't even control myself! I was so mad at him after I remembered what he did to me last night. I can't believe that I managed to control myself!_ Sonic rubbed his furry head as he ran on all fours into the east, searching for Tails. _I have to explain __**everything**__ to him, now that I remember._


	5. Out From the Shadows

**Out From the Shadows**

Shadow the hedgehog stood on a roof in Soleanna. It was pouring down rain, and he continually flicked both of his ears to dislodge the tiny droplets of water. His ruby red eyes scanned the dark and damp streets below him. The crescent moon barely illuminated anything on the whole city, with exception for the waterways, which reflected the moon's light. Shadow groaned frustratedly at the rain, wishing that he could go inside.

"But I can't. I have to find Sonic for the GUN..." He mumbled. He glared up at the down pouring sky. Stars twinkled faintly down at him. He crossed his arms and stared at his shoes. The rain suddenly stopped falling on his head. He heard a sound like stretching leather, and he looked up confusedly. A dark purple bat wing acted like an umbrella over his head.

"Rouge?" Shadow asked. The wing retracted from over his head, and he was able to vaguely see a white bat wearing a night black body suit with a pink colored heart chest plate.

"Did you miss me?" She asked sarcastically. Shadow quietly shook his head.

"No?" Rouge fluttered her eyelashes, mocking surprise. Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Well, I missed you!" Rouge said, leaning in to give Shadow a hug. Shadow stood stiffly, obviously unhappy with the show of affection.

"It's been a while since we've teamed up to do a job," Rouge commented cheerily.

"You're looking for Sonic as well?" Shadow asked as he shoved Rouge off of him. The wind picked up and the rain slanted for a moment. Rouge simply nodded.

"You're rather dressed up for a mission, aren't you?" Shadow grumbled.

"I always try to look my best," Rouge smiled, fluffing up her hair. Shadow rolled his eyes at her, causing Rouge to pout. The air practically crackled as they traded agitated looks.

Meanwhile, Sonic was frantically searching for Tails. He hopped over a shrub, accidentally catching his foot and tripping. He did a full flip, and barely managed to avoid landing in a waterway. "Whoa! That was close!" Sonic cried, exhilarated. He got back to his feet, and started to run down the street as fast as possible, which wasn't nearly as fast as he could usually run.

"Tails! Where are you?" Shadow and Rouge tensed up when they heard a deep voice call. They looked at each other and nodded.

"I say that we investigate!" Rouge declared. "Grab my hands, Shadow, and hand on tight!" Shadow smiled for a second and accepted her invitation. Rouge stretched out her wings and started to flap them. She flew Shadow down twelve feet onto the street below.

"Thank you," Shadow said, finally warming up to his team mate. Rouge winked.

"No problem, honey," She replied, sugary sweet. They started when the deep voice came again, from behind them.

"Tails, is that you?" Rouge and Shadow exchanged a look.

"What does this guy want from the two-tailed fox?" Shadow whispered into Rouges ear.

"I have no idea, but I pan on finding out!" Rouge whispered back. She stepped forward and tapped the large figure on the shoulder.

"Hrm?" The big creature grunted.

"What do you want from Tails? Did you lose a bet to him and now you're mad?"

"N-no! Of course not, I-"

"I don't have time for this!" Shadow growled stormily. "Get out of my way, you furry moron!" He shoved Sonic out of his way, not knowing who he was.

"I am **NOT A MORON**!" Sonic yelled indignantly. His hand shot out and grabbed Shadow's mid section.

"Shadow! Why would you say something like that?" Rouge cried out to her captured team mate.

"Let me go!" Shadow shouted at his captor. Sonic growled at him, still mad about being called a moron. He stopped for a moment, a devious smile spreading across his face, showing his sharp teeth.

"I'll let you go," Rouge sighed with relief. "If, you admit that it is you, **not** me who is the moron, and then you will have to walk around clucking like a chicken for the rest of the day. If anyone asks what you're doing, screech in their face, 'I'm a moron!'" Sonic chuckled as he finished, then he stared at Shadow, seeing what his reaction was. A nearby street lamp revealed Shadow's horrified expression. It was obvious that he would rather swim nonstop for a whole week than act like an idiot. Rouge's eyes were wide and she covered her mouth to muffle her laughter.

"Thank you Rouge, I really appreciate that." Shadow said sarcastically, then grimaced. "Also...I, I accept your proposal." Shadow said reluctantly. Sonic dropped Shadow down onto the street.

"I'm glad you saw things my way! Now say it." Sonic prompted. Shadow sighed and rolled his eyes.

"You are _not_ the moron, it is I who is the moron." Shadow grumbled.

"OK, that was rather quiet, but I guess it'll have to do," Sonic said decidedly. "Now, go, start clucking, have a nice day. And also, if you think you're going to get off easy and not follow my instructions, think again! Because I _will_ be watching you," Sonic pointed at Shadow menacingly. "Now go, my chicken! Fly away from here!" Sonic howled with laughter, and started to walk away. Shadow sighed and started clucking.

"I swear I know him from somewhere..." Rouge said thoughtfully. Shadow walked miserably beside her, still clucking like a chicken.

Meanwhile, Eggman feverishly was tapping on his keyboard. It was plugged into the back of the deactivated Metal Sonic's head.

"Nearly finished," He said, hitting the 'enter' key for one last time.

"Wow! That's gonna be so cool!" A voice shouted from right next to Eggman's head. That caused Eggman to jump to his feet and nearly drop the head.

"Argh! You're snooping as usual, I see!" He yelled frustratedly at Scratch.

"Sorry, I just happened to sneak a peek," Scratch replied. Eggman sighed.

"Do it again and I'll dismantle you." He said simply. Scratch raised his eyebrows and quickly ran into a different room. Eggman plopped the Metal Sonic's head down on his chair and walked into a hallway. He walked until he came to the fifth door down, then he opened the door and walked into a barely lit room. He walked through it, groping the walls for a light switch. A velvety voice disturbed him.

_"I've been waiting for you, Doctor."_ The voice said.

"Leave me alone," Eggman replied.

"You called me a traitor."Eggman attempted to ignore the voice, and continued his search for the switch.

"I see you've finally come back for me. I knew that you would, Doctor. I'm just too powerful to be ignored!" Eggman finally found the switch and flipped it. Lights instantly flashed on and he turned around to look at the robot that had been talking to him. Neo Metal Sonic glared at him.

"I suppose that you think that I'm bitter. Let me rest you assured: I am." The robot tilted his head in a gesture of fake apology. Eggman shook his head.

"I could have sworn that you were de-activated when I put you in that capsule. Who turned you back on?" Eggman prodded curiously.

"I faked my own demise, so as I could examine and re-examine my mistakes and learn from them. I have been online for this whole time." Neo Metal Sonic replied smugly. "Also, I would be very pleased if you would release me from this _prison_, so that I can make my copy disappear." Neo Metal Sonic knew that he was making an irresistible offer to Eggman. Eggman pondered the robot's offer.

"Hmph, I suppose that I'll let you out." The robot placed both of it's hands on the wall of it's capsule eagerly. "Mind you, this is only a trial run!" Eggman said decidedly. He walked up next to the capsule and pressed three buttons in succession: yellow to green to blue. The glass lifted with a whooshing sound, and the robot stepped out cautiously.

"I thank you, you will not regret this decision!" Neo Metal Sonic said, and fell into step next to Eggman as he walked out of the room and into the hallway. Watching from the window of a glass door in the hallway, four robots, namely Orbot, Scratch, Cubot, and Grounder were curious about the new robot.

"Now, who's that?" Orbot asked the others. The other three shrugged, just as confused as Orbot. In the observation deck, Eggman decided to send Neo Metal Sonic on a test immediately.

"Metal, I am a bit short on minions, so I need you to go capture some Mobians. Then you will turn them into robots! I will implant this camera behind your ear so that I can see how you do. You can go anywhere you like to do your work. Report back to me in two days." Eggman said authoritatively to him new right hand robot. The robot took the video camera and stuck it behind his ear.

"I am sure that you will be impressed with how I have improved in my mimicry skills." Neo Metal Sonic commented before he flew out of a hatch in the ceiling.

Back in Soleanna, Sonic was wandering through the streets, aimless and bored. "Where is that little rascal Tails?" He asked himself quietly. He sat down on a bench to ponder over it when he noticed a strange, ticklish sensation. He started to laugh. Suddenly, a purple mist enveloped him for a few seconds. Recovering from his fit of laughter, Sonic looked down at himself. He noticed that he was back to his normal stature. He looked up, and noticed that the sun's early dawn rays were spilling over the rooftops of Soleanna houses.

"Oh," Sonic said to himself . Sonic rolled his eyes at his foolishness. _Can't be mister monster forever I guess!_ He thought to himself. He stood to his feet, still wondering where his fox kit friend had run off to. "Maybe something will come to me if I go for a little jog!" Sonic decided. A 'little jog', in Sonic's standards, was more like a hurricane was blowing through the city to the Soleannians. Sonic was running all over the city, being very careful not to fall into the intricate waterways that crisscrossed the entire city. Nearby, Shadow walked frustratedly beside agent Rouge. He was still clucking like a chicken, but more in an undertone. Sonic heard the slight noise coming from the black hedgehog, and came to a screeching stop.

"Hey, Shadow!" Sonic greeting cheerily. Shadow stopped and crossed his arms, huffing.

"What do _you_ want, Faker?" He asked. It was obvious that he was ticked by what he had been forced to do. Sonic was not one to miss the details. A devious grin slowly spread across his face, he made it go away quickly though.

"Shadow? I want to ask you something..." Sonic started. Rouge raised an eyebrow, suspecting what Sonic was going to say next. Sonic grinned again, and asked. "Why are you doing that?" Sonic asked. Rouge looked at Sonic closely. He was acting like a seven year old high on sugar.

Shadow's eyes cut back and forth, and he finally smirked and said, "What's it to you, blue hedgehog?" Sonic's eyes widened, he was obviously not expecting that answer. He gave Shadow a reproving look and wagged his index finger at him.

"Come on Shadow! That is not what I told you to—Uh..." Sonic looked up at the clouds and fiddled his thumbs, wishing that he hadn't just said that. Rouge and Shadow exchanged a shocked glance.

"Y'know, I just remembered that I've really got to be...er, _somewhere_! I'd sure like to stay and chat, but I've really got to get going now." Sonic blurted out, then he laughed nervously. "Bye!" He exclaimed, and dashed off so fast that he made a small trail of fire behind him that died down after a few seconds.

"Well that was certainly one of the stranger conversations that I've had with Sonic." Rouge observed. Shadow's simply shook his head.

"You are correct. I can see a definite connection of some kind between Sonic and that oddball that we met last night." Shadow commented. Rouge nodded, and then she stretched out her wings, as if she was getting ready to fly off.

"Well Shadow, honey, as much fun as this has been, I'm afraid that I've got to go." Rouge said, a sarcastic tone present, like always. She propelled herself into the air with a few strong flaps of her wings.

"But wait, where are you going anyway? I thought that we were doing this mission together!" Shadow said with an expression of puzzlement. Rouge smiled at the black hedgehog.

"I'm going to my rendezvous point. Thank you for your help though sweetheart." Rouge said in her usual sugar-sweet way. "Bye," Rouge faced Shadow and winked. Shadow squinted after the bat agent as she flew away into the early morning sky.

_Well, that was and utterly useless five hours of my life that I'll never get back!_ Rouge thought, annoyed. _I found absolutely no information about the Chaos Emeralds! _Rouge rolled her eyes. _Oh well, I know where to find someone who does know about where the Chaos Emeralds are. It's time to visit my Knuckles! _Rouge grinned to herself, and propelled herself through the air, heading towards Angel Island.


	6. Crazy Gadgets & A Kidnapping

**Crazy Gadgets & A Kidnapping**

Sonic wiped his forehead in a relieved gesture as he ran. "Phew! That was close, really close. I can't believe that I said _that_! Now I've definitely aroused Shadow's and Rouge's suspicion...And where in the world is Tails?" Sonic talked to keep himself busy as he ran. After the sun had risen, it made the day get hotter and hotter. It reminded him vaguely of his days spent in desert zones, the sun beating down on his back was unpleasant, and he was starting to feel rather thirsty. An idea popped into Sonic's mind that brought him to a screeching halt. "Oh _duh_! Of course that's where Tails has gone!" He immediately zipped off into the east. He knew exactly where he was going, and he reached his location in three minutes flat. "Oh Tails!" Sonic called in a sing-song voice as he knocked on his friend's workshop door.

"The door's unlocked, Sonic," called a voice from inside. Sonic opened the door to the workshop and strolled in, grinning.

"So this is where you ran off to! I should have thought of it sooner," Sonic commented cheerily. Tails was sitting at a desk in one of the out-of-the-way corners of his workshop. He had been leaned over a piece of paper doing complicated math and mapping out what looked like some kind of plane. Tails sat up and turned around smiling. He put his pencil behind his left ear before he spoke.

"I wasn't sure how long you would take on the Flying Fortress, so I just decided to come home so I would be able to go to sleep on time. I knew you would figure out where I went, so I wasn't worried. What did you do all night?" said Tails.

Sonic was glad that he could finally tell his friend what Eggman had done. "Okay, Tails, there is something really important that I've got to tell you,"

"Then go ahead, Sonic!" Tails prompted, his tails swishing with excitement.

"Okay, here's what happened the night before last, after I yelled at you to run away: Egghead turned me into a Werehog again!" Sonic said, his voice rising with indignation. Tails' eyes widened with shock.

"No way! I can't believe it, how did he do it?" Tails cried.

"He used that remote and it somehow channeled the negative energy of Chaos Emeralds. It's really annoying to be reminded how smart Egghead is, because sometimes...well, sometimes he just lets us forget." Sonic explained.

"So I guess that means you ran around smashing stuff?" Tails asked.

"No! But I _did_ torment a certain red and black faker," Sonic said with a grin.

"Oh, Sonic, when will you ever just leave Shadow alone?" Tails asked with a teasing sparkle in his eyes. Sonic simply shot Tails a look that obviously said that _that_ was _never_ going to happen. Sonic walked up behind Tails to see what his little buddy was up to.

"So," Sonic drew out 'so' to a ridiculous length. "What's this Tails?" Tails looked up, a scientific expression on his face.

"This, Sonic, is my design for a new airplane. I'm going to call it 'The Hurricane'! What do you think?" Tails asked, his bright, blue eyes looking up at Sonic for his approval. Sonic punched a fist into his left hand, smiling wildly.

"Looks awesome, Tails! I can't wait to see it streaking across the sky," Sonic cried excitedly. Tails nodded, just as excited as Sonic. Sonic leaned over Tail's work, and squinted at it. "Y'know, wouldn't that other accelerator work better on the top of the plane's body? I'm just shooting in the dark, here, but am I right?" Tails looked where Sonic indicated, and, surprisingly, nodded in agreement.

"You're right, Sonic! I guess I made a fumble there, I'm glad that I had my big brother here to point it out for me!" Tails said. Sonic blinked in pleasure from being called Tail's 'big brother'. He put his arm around the young fox's shoulders in a brotherly way.

Meanwhile, the sinister Neo Metal Sonic flew across the sky, heading to Spagonia. He had learned about the giant celebration taking place that month, and had decided that would be one of the best places to find Mobians to robotisize. "Sonic...my loathsome copy will never know what hit him when my army – er, Dr. Robotnik's, army that is, attacks the hedgehog until he's nothing but a puddle of blue jelly!" The robotic horror bayed like a bloodhound on the scent of a fox. He noticed that his airborne surroundings were beginning to change. Hot air balloons rose at different heights all around the vengeful robot, their passengers, humans and Mobians alike, were yelling and laughing, all having the time of their lives.

"I'd love to see them all turned into cold-hearted robots..." Neo Metal Sonic mumbled in a disgruntled way. It disturbed the robot's very being to see everyone around him so happy. He continued flying until he scanned the area below him, and it came up as positive. "Aha, there are many options for me!" Neo said, and he landed upon the ground, but not before he activated his cloaking program. He didn't want to arouse suspicion in the crowds of people, so he played it safe and walked extremely quietly. He remembered to activate the camera wedged behind his ear, so that Eggman back at his Flying Fortress, could get a live-streaming feed of Neo Metal Sonic's mission.

He walked quietly until he was standing with his back to the corner of a hotel. Even though he was still invisible, he was extremely cautious when he glanced around the corner. He saw a yellow dingo with a mohawk talking to two grimacing girls. _You're mine!_ Neo thought, a plan already was forming in his head. As Neo Metal Sonic waited for his chance, he amused himself by watching the dingo's failed conversation. When he paused for breath, both girls scrambled to get away.

"Whaaat? Where'd you go, girls?" The dingo called confusedly. Neo couldn't help snorting. He cleared head though, and mimicked the voices of two girls.

"Oh my gosh, that dingo must be crazy!" He said, making the first voice annoyingly high pitched and snotty.

"I know! It's like, he totally thought that we were into his hair, but, like, really, we totally weren't!" Neo made the second voice the perfect cliche of a teenage girl. The dingo had peeked around the corner to see if he could see who the two girls who were talking about him were, but he couldn't. He was annoyed that the talking girls(Neo Metal Sonic), didn't think that he was the best thing since Marco Antonio, a famous Mobian actor. The dingo rushed out of hiding.

"Don't talk about me like that you foxes!" He howled indignantly. He then looked around confusedly. "Uh...where exactly _are_ you foxes?" He heard a suspicious footfall behind him, and was about to whirl around, when suddenly everything went dark.

Neo Metal Sonic laughed evilly and slung the squirming sack that contained the howling dingo. He flew into the air, and would periodically swoop down for a few minutes, then he would boost back into the air with more squirming sacks slung over his invisible shoulders. He caught a chestnut colored mouse, a turquoise fox with neon stripes, and a violet canary. _This is enough, for a start._ He decided. He then flew to a secret Eggman base where he could use the robotisizer.

The evil robot opened the door and strolled in. He dropped all four sacks with a thud after he had locked the door. All of the captured Mobians struggled out of their sacks, and instanly froze when Neo Metal Sonic disengaged his invisible cloaking device.

"Metal...Sonic?" The canary croaked nervously.

Neo Metal Sonic had been pacing in front of them, deciding who to robotisize first. His head whipped around at the disturbance. "I did not ask you to speak!" He said sharply. Then he grabbed the canary's arm and dragged her to the nearest robotisizing chamber. "In you go," He cried with a mocking tone. The machine began to whirr, and eventually, the door slid open.

"Ooh," Metal Sonic cried, sounding like a kid in a candy shop. "You look absolutely _stunning_, my dear old bird!" The new robot turned it's head to observe her admirer.

"I cannot accept compliments, unless they are for my great master Dr. Eggman." She replied.

"Are you getting this?" Neo Metal Sonic asked Eggman, via the video camera.

"Yes! And I also know the perfect place for you to put her after you're all done turning the others into robots," Eggman replied. After that encouragement, Neo Metal Sonic robotisized two more Mobians with a cold satisfaction. Soon, three robots stood against the back wall, and one, rather winpy looking, Mobian was left. He looked back and forth nervously.

"Hey! You'll never get away with this! Sonic will stop you!" the dingo shouted. Neo Metal Sonic snatched his arm and tossed him into the robotisizer. "Oof!" he cried in surprise.

"Don't you dare mention my loathsome copy's name!" he yelled at the Mobian.

"Okay then, I won't say 'his' name again!" said the dingo, trying to quench the robot's rage.

"That's not enough. The damage is done," returned Neo icily. He closed the door of the robotisizer, and he twisted a dial on the side up to seven.

"What are you doing?" Eggman's voice screeched in the robot's ear.

"I'm making him the strongest of this series, Dr." replied Neo Metal Sonic, somewhat puzzled. No reply came. He shrugged his shoulder and waited nearly thirteen minutes. Finally, the door slid open, and a giant, seven foot robot stepped out, nearly taking the whole doorway with him. Neo Metal Sonic stared up at the giant robot. He was amazed by the size of his new ally, but wasn't too dumbfounded to forget to direct all four of the new robots to line up against the wall opposite to the front door. They all followed his direction, and lined up against the wall. Neo clicked a remote and a small movie screen came down from the ceiling. "This is you're legion initiation video, so watch closely!" He barked, turning on what _should have been_ the video. As soon as he pressed the button to turn it on though, a video that was most definitely _not _the legion initiation video started to play. A short video of a chao riding a skateboard and subsequently falling off played instead.

"What in the world?" cried Neo Metal Sonic, shocked by another unforeseen occurrence.

"Ain't that just darn tootin' adorable? I thought you'd like that video!" yelled an annoying voice from Neo's earpiece.

"Why do you have access to Eggman's speaker?" Neo asked.

"Oh dear me! Cubot, I do believe that you have broken your vocal processors **again**! Also, Metal Sonic, our dear beloved leader (and abuser) is on his 'break'." piped up a voice that sounded a lot like Orbot's.

"You're not mad at us, are you? 'Cause it really is a cute video," squawked Scratch.

Back in the robotisizer room, Neo Metal Sonic shrugged. "Eh, it is actually serving as a personality test. You can probably see how they are reacting right now, it's quite amusing, I have to say," Neo said smugly, watching the new robots.

"What witchcraft is this?" shouted the dingo robot, as he smashed his fist through the screen, as well as the wall behind it. The other three robots cheered his on, all disturbed by the adorable video.

"Hur hur, har har, ha ha ha!" chuckled Grounder from the earpiece.

"Ahh! Get away from the microphone Grounder! The boss is comin'!" came a shout from the background.

"What are you dumbbells doing with my microphone? Shoo! Go and get to work!" Eggman had obviously come back into the room, and he wasn't very pleased by what he saw. "Well, did _you_ at least accomplish something?" Eggman addressed Neo Metal Sonic.

"Oh yes, I've gotten four Mobians robotisized, and they almost watched the legionizing video. Almost. Now it is out of commission, as well as the nearby wall..." Neo said, his voice trailing off near the end.

"Argh! Really? I spent a whole _half an hour _putting that video together!" sighed Eggman, disappointed.

"Eh, don't worry about it. I'll just force them to watch it later." Neo replied offhandedly.

Back in Tail's workshop, both Sonic and Tails were sweating like crazy.

"What a scorcher!" Sonic said, with a low whistle. Tails nodded in agreement, sweeping the back of his hand across his sweating forehead.

"I agree! This is an abnormally hot day!" Tails commented. Sonic sighed and sprawled back in his chair like he was melting. Tails laughed at Sonic.

"What I would give for an air conditioner!" Sonic groaned, not at all taking the hot sweep well.

"Thankfully, I have a solution," Tails started to say. "That does _not_ have anything to do with an air conditioner!" He added at Sonic's excited sounding grunt.

"Well, what's your solution?" Sonic asked curiously, cocking his head. _He_ thought that nothing could be better than lounging around next to an air conditioner on a blazing day when you were too tired to run like usual.

"It's a surprise, Sonic! I can't tell you," Tails said teasingly, pulling out a scarf that he meant to wrap around Sonic's eyes.

"Okay, I'll let you surprise me I guess!" Sonic said patronizingly. In all truth, he believed that Tails's surprise had something to do with an air conditioned restaurant that sold chili dogs. Sonic allowed Tails to wrap his scarf around Sonic's eyes. Tails then led Sonic outside, grabbed the blue hedgehog by his wrists, and then twisted his tails together and started to fly.

"We should get there in a few minutes," Tails said, excitement rising in his voice. Sonic smiled at the tingling sensation of flight as he hung by his wrists from Tail's hands. After around five minutes, Sonic and Tails arrived at a mysterious place. Tails knew exactly where they were, but Sonic - who was wearing a scarf over his eyes - was utterly confused by the sounds of children shouting and playing, whistles blowing, music playing loudly, and - could it be? - the sound of water rushing!

As soon as Sonic's feet touched the ground, he ripped the scarf off from over his eyes. "Ahh! Why have you brought me here, Tails? You know I **hate** water!" Sonic yelled, somewhere between a scream of fear and a stern reprimand. Before his eyes lay a huge water park. Kids were running all over, there parents scurrying after the runaways. One little fox kit tripped and fell in front of Sonic, letting go of her ice cream cone as she fell.

"Ow!" she started to cry. Sonic quickly grabbed the airborne ice cream by it's waffle cone. He leaned down to help the little girl onto her feet.

"Here you go," he said kindly, handing the fox kit her ice cream cone. She rubbed her nose roughly and blinked the tears out of her eyes.

"T-thank you Mister." the little girl replied softly. Her parents ran up, panting. They smiled at Sonic and Tails, and then guided their child away to a kiddie slide.

"Aw, that was really nice, Sonic!" Tails said, trying to distract the cobalt hedgehog from all the water surrounding him.

"Oh-ho! I am not letting you of the hook yet, Fox-boy!" Sonic said, but he already was feeling a little less on guard. Which, of course, led to the water phobic hedgehog ending up on the top of the biggest water slide in the entire park.

Tails had just gone down before him, yelling happily. He _never_ got to go to water parks! Sonic wanted desperately to get off of the slide, but there was practically a blockade of people wanting to go down the slide in his way. Sonic whirled all over the top step he was on, looking for a way down. He froze when he heard an all too familiar voice.

"Sonic! I had no _idea_ that you would be here!" cried Amy Rose, lunging at Sonic and grasping his arm. Sonic's eyes widened and he stared blankly at Amy. He was faced by his two biggest fears. "Oh, Sonic! Now we can go down the slide together if you're scared," Amy blinked her eyes flirtatiously.

"Mmm, as _wonderful_ as that sounds, Amy, I've gotta do it to it! Tails, get ready, 'cause here I come!" Sonic replied sarcastically, and he jumped into the water slide before she could make a snarky comment in return.

Sonic felt like he was sliding in pins and needles, not water. At about halfway down the slide, Sonic yelled to Tails: "Tails! Get me off of this thing, _please_! I think that even a few cuddles from Amy wouldn't be as scary as drowning!"

Tails watched Sonic, his eyes widened with amazement as the hedgehog fervently tried to go back **up** the slide. Needless to say, that did **not** work. Tails could only dog-paddle up to the part of the slide where it met water, as his twin tails wouldn't allow him to fly because they had become heavy with water. Minutes later, Sonic splashed into the water area next to Tails, then bobbed up out of the water, spluttering out water that he had accidentally swallowed on his way down.

"Tails," coughed Sonic, feeling absolutely pitiful. "Can we _please_ get out of here? All this water really doesn't suite me." he sighed heavily. Just then, Amy came down the slide, accidentally (on purpose!) landing on Sonic's head, inadvertently pushing her crush under the water again. Sonic burst out of the water again, coughing out more water while shooting furious glares at Amy.

"What gives, Amy? I was just minding my own business, and then you dunk me! That's just not right." Sonic scolded the twelve year old hedgehog. Tails watched the scene calmly. This happened a lot.

"Sonic! You're not being fair! I seriously didn't see you, it was a mistake! Now, don't make me get out my Piko-Piko so I can smash some sense into you, cutie!" Amy said, equally as annoyed as Sonic.

"Whatever. Come on Tails, let's get out of here!" Sonic cried out decisively, grabbing Tails by the arm and wading out of the pool. The blue hedgehog then dashed away and out of the park with his two-tailed friend in tow. Even though Sonic wouldn't admit it, the pool _had_ cooled him down considerably.

Sonic kept on running until they were at one of his most favorite places in the whole world. Chuck's Diner, which served possibly the best chili dogs in the world.

Meanwhile, nearly halfway across the world, internationally renowned G.U.N agent and jewel thief Rouge the Bat was flying through the sky, in hot pursuit of Angel Island. She was looking at her wrist watch\Chaos Emerald tracker disgustedly.

"This stupid technology," she growled in frustration. Whenever a colored dot that represented Angel Island appeared on her watch, minutes later it would disappear, then reappear in a completely different location. Really, what can you expect? It _is_ a floating island after all. Rouge didn't care though. She was fed up.

"That's it!" she said, ripping off the watch and flinging it down angrily onto the ground. She didn't notice that the "ground" made a clanking noise when her watch hit it. Rouge flapped her wings, then kept gliding. She couldn't see Angel Island, but she was extremely confident that she was going to find it. When she relied on technology, it usually came back to bite her. Rouge knew that the tested and true method was to rely on her sweet self. Usually. Suddenly, a sharp whistling noise started to ring in her ears. Rouge stopped short, the loud noise temporarily debilitating her. She plummeted to the ground, because her wings had frozen up due to the shocking noise. Rouge screwed her eyes shut, anticipating a rough landing. She blinked her eyes back open when she was caught by something or someone.

"What in the world?" she gaped when she saw the face of her rescuer. "Omega! Thank you for catching me," Rouge said happily to the robot. E-123 Omega turned his head to the side for a minute, obviously guilty about something. Rouge caught on fast.

"Wait...was it you who made that whistling noise that made me fall?" Rouge asked accusingly.

"I saw you flying up there, and then you threw a _wristwatch_ at my head, I think. I was mad at you, and I knew that loud noises make you fall when in flight. It is also imperative that you join me. I am going to Angel Island, because the G.U.N believes that something strange is going on there. Our sensors are picking up that the floating island is not following it's normal flight patterns, it used to follow a smooth line of travel, but now it appears that the island is _warping_ to a completely different location." Omega explained.

Rouge's eyes widened with surprise. "Really? The Chaos sensors in my, er, wristwatch were picking up the same things! We should **definitely** check it out, Omega." Rouge said, an eager and determined expression set on her face.

"That is exactly what I wanted you to say, Agent Rouge." replied Omega, his voice showing unnatural excitement compared to his usual tone which was devoid of emotion.

Rouge hopped out of Omega's arms, and with a few strong flops of her wings, she began gliding next to Omega's shoulder, ready for whatever challenge may come next.


	7. Sol Searching

**Sol Searching**

Blaze the Cat was feeling quite frazzled that weekend evening. She wandered all around Marine's house, which was very crowded that day. The whole Coconut Crew was inside, planning a big surprise for Marine who had been banished to the playroom in Blaze's castle. Poor Blaze, she was excellent with strategy, yet planning a party for a six-year-old girl had really taken it out of her.

"Hey, Daikun and Tabby, can you help me hang this up?" Blaze asked two of the members of the Coconut Crew. Tabby and Daikun came over to help, smiling excitedly. The trio draped a banner off Marine's ceiling. The banner said: **Welcome the the Coconut Crew Marine! **It was nearly six o'clock - the determined time that Blaze was supposed to go get Marine. Before she left, though, Blaze frantically checked with everyone that every detail was in place.

"You're sure that you remember Marine's favorite song?" Blaze asked Muzy, the muscician of the Coconut Crew.

"Of course, Blaze! 'A New Venture' – I've got it memorized!" Muzy replied confidently.

"OK then. Moving on, Kylok, have you got the videos ready?" Blaze questioned Kylok, who had put together a video collage of recordings of Marine from the past six years.

"It's ready, alright! It's also one of the cutest things you'll ever see!" Kylok said, fiddling with his remote control.

"Excellent. Colonel and Setter, have you two finished decorating?" Blaze asked the two koalas who enjoyed to decorate.

"Done." said Setter.

"And Done!" said Colonel.

"Perfect! Tabby, Gardon, are you two finished hanging banners and such?" Blaze asked, starting to sound breathless.

"Of course, your highness." replied Gardon graciously.

"Right." said Tabby, looking tuckered out.

"That's wonderful. Now, I guess I'll go get Marine. We'll be back here in a few! Remember; do not let yourselves be seen until we open the door!" Blaze said, looking overly anxious. The Coconut Crew took a note between themselves to **not** tell Blaze when they were planning a surprise party next time.

Inside Blaze's castle, Marine was amusing herself by causing mischief in the playroom. The playroom was beautiful and elegant, mostly because it barely had had any visitors. In fact, the only other kid that had been there was Cream the Rabbit,who had come for a visit with her feline friend. Needless to say she had used everything _very_ gently, as her mother had taught her manners to the utmost degree.

There was a fish tank in a corner of the playroom, but there were no fish in there, _anymore_. Fifteen minutes before that, you could have watched elegant angelfish and other beauties swim around in crystal clear water. Now, you would have to look around the whole room to spot them floating in bubbles of water in the air! Marine sat in the middle of the playroom on top of a stack of pillows, looking around and giggling tempestuously at her work when Blaze walked in to get the little raccoon. Blaze froze, her eyes wide open and her mouth gaping. For a minute, she wasn't sure whether to giggle or to groan. Finally, she decided to do neither.

"Marine! What have you done?" she said, slightly scolding the girl. Blaze had a stern expression on her face, but it broke into a smile. Blaze shook her head, and looked around at the room, especially the floating fish, letting her hands raise up in mock-disbelief. She looked down at Marine again.

"I am really liking what you've done with this place, Marine," Blaze said. "Look at those fish! They look very happy, being able to swim all around the room, but could you please direct them back to their home now?" Blaze requested politely. "Then we can go back to your house." she added, practically dangling a carrot for Marine. The little raccoon decided to go along with the lavender cat's suggestion.

"Orright, little fishies! Let's getcha back to your 'ouse! **Crikey**! What was that for, little fish?" Marine chattered like a bird as she was putting the fish back into their spacious tank. One feisty angelfish tried to bite Marine's face as it swam by, getting an Australian reprimand from Marine.

Once Marine had put all the fish back in the tank, Blaze grabbed on to Marine's wrist, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. "Come on, Marine! Let's go, it's getting dark out!" Blaze said, her tails swishing impatiently. Marine knew something was up. _Crikey! Blaze is actin' like someone's gonna throw her a party when we get to my house! _Marine didn't grasp how close to the truth she was.

Blaze really did try to keep her excitement under wraps, but she just couldn't quite seem to control her tail. It was twitching and swishing all over, and then it would suddenly kink and snap back to how it was supposed to look. Marine noticed Blaze's tail's "antics", and concealed a giggle. Blaze, meanwhile, didn't even notice what her tail was doing. She was too busy thinking of other things. Blaze felt all her worries melting off, as she realized how exciting it was to throw a party for her closest friend, even if it had made her feel like she had aged three years.

Tabby had peeked out of one of the windows in Marine's house. He saw Blaze and Marine walking in the horizon. "OK everyone, get to your posts! They're on their way!" Tabby whisper-shouted to the rest of the Coconut Crew. The other koalas hurried to their places, and waited. They had already turned off all the lights, so they busied themselves by watching the door, anticipating it's opening.

Once they had reached Marine's house, Blaze urged her young friend to open the door. "Go ahead Marine, I'll come in after you, to get everything ready for bedtime." Blaze said, careful not to mention that the whole Coconut Crew was inside, ready to throw a surprise party. Marine's blue eyes locked onto the brass doorknob, then looked up at Blaze.

"My cap'n's sense is tinglin', Blaze. I've got a feeling that something is going to happen when I open this door!" Marine said, grinning at Blaze excitedly. Marine opened the door with a quick flick of her wrist, and in front of her stood a dark, empty room, it's decorations smeared out of sight by shadows. Marine's arms suddenly hung down by her sides.

"Aww, criminy Blaze! I was just sure-" Marine started to say, looking down at her shoes.

"Ha-ha, Marine! Guess you didn't look close enough!" Tabby couldn't resist informing Marine.

Gardon shot Tabby a quick glare from his hiding place shortly before he chorused with the rest of the Coconut Crew; "Welcome to the Coconut Crew, Marine!" Someone flipped on the lights, and Marine was hit by the concentrated affect of suddenly seeing all the hard work that her friends had spent on intricately decorating her house for the party. All Marine could do was gasp, then wander around her house, oohing and awwing at the decorations. Then the realization hit her.

"Y-you said I'm 'welcomed to the Coconut Crew'. Does...that mean that I'm in the Crew now? _Crikey_!" Marine said, shocked. Gardon looked at Marine and gave her a curt nod. His usually icy demeanor melted a little when Marine ran around, happily distributing hugs and barely intelligible remarks. Last to get their hug was Blaze.

"Blaze, my good first mate! I can tell ya were behind all this..._fabulousness_! You planned this party, didn't ya?" Marine asked Blaze. Blaze decided to ignore Marine's made up word and accept the compliment. Blaze started nodding.

"Yes, I did do most of the planning." Blaze said quietly.

"Oy! Quite," Marine said, her eyes darting around, taking in all the details. Muzy picked up his guitar and sat down on a green chair, tuning his guitar. He started to strum it, a tune starting to form. He sang:

"Life starts with a sunny day,

Let's feel the ocean breath!

We are cruisin' open seas,

Can't wait for a New Venture!

La-la, La-la, La-la, A New Venture!"

Marine grinned and listened to Muzy play his song serenely. Blaze smiled when she finally realized, the party was a success!

Two hours later, it was eight thirty five, and Blaze had been escorted back to her castle by Gardon. "Good night, your highness." Gardon said with a bow. Blaze grimaced and walked away to do her final job for the day. As she walked down the hallways, Blaze wondered if Gardon would _ever _follow her wishes and just call her by her name. _Oh well,_ Blaze decided._ At least he has a healthy respect for me!_ By the time she had made up her mind on her "nickname" Blaze had arrived at her destination.

A secret, roofless chamber that only guardians of the Royal Line knew of. Blaze opened a heavy wooden door that led into the chamber. Closing the door behind her, she stepped into the room that she had known since her childhood. The room that was the secret location of all seven Sol Emeralds and the Jeweled Scepter, which, as a guardian, she had sworn to protect with her _life_. Blaze smiled. Whenever she was in this room, she felt...safe.

Blaze got right down to her job. The sooner she finished checking each emerald, the sooner she would be able to go to sleep. She yawned, then she picked up the green Sol Emerald, checking it for any scratches or defects that had suddenly appeared. One by one, Blaze checked the other six emeralds.

_They're all fine,_ Blaze concluded. She walked into the middle of the room where the Jeweled Scepter stood upright on it's own pedestal. Blaze picked up the long purple scepter in both hands. She smiled fondly as she looked over it, thinking of her adventures with her friends Sonic the Hedgehog and Tails. They had helped her reclaim the Jeweled Scepter from the robotic pirates Captain Whisker and Johnny.

_Hmm, I wonder what Sonic and Tails are up to these days?_ Blaze wondered, suddenly absentminded. A sudden bright flash caught her attention, though. Blaze looked up in shock just in time to see a rainbow of crackling Sol Emerald energy turn into white light over her head. The Jeweled Scepter fell out of her hands, and everything went white.

After having a hearty meal at his Uncle Chuck's restaurant with Tails, Sonic stretched out in front of the establishment. Tails came out the front door with a jingle. "Well, Sonic. What do you want to do now?" It was 2:00, and the sun was still beating down from overhead. Sonic shaded his eyes with a hand, and looked around his surroundings. He pointed to the east.

"Let's go that way!" Sonic decided suddenly. He took off in that direction, glancing once over his shoulder to see if Tails was coming. Tails shrugged and flew after Sonic. _Knowing Sonic,_ Tails thought. _We're sure to find an adventure in any direction!_ The duo had traveled only three miles when they both skidded to a stop. Not surprisingly, Tails' prediction was being fulfilled.

Overhead was Eggman's rebuilt Egg Fleet. In front of them stood an army of about one hundred Egg Pawns in a triangle formation. At the tip of the triangle stood a comically scrawny looking Metal Sonic with silver stripes. The funniest thing about this robot was that his green eyes were permanently crossed.

**On the main ship of the Egg Fleet**

Eggman sighed as he watched his newest Metal Sonic face off with Sonic. No, the robot did not look very menacing, but that was the point. This new model had a secret ability. It could transform itself into a Metal-werehog that nearly matched Sonic's strength when he was in _his_ werehog form. Eggman had dabbled in developing some new cutting-edge technology earlier that afternoon when he had accidentally created a metal alloy that could transform it's properties.

The metal alloy was made by combining the chemical properties of a steel/iron metal alloy and pure silver with water. The initial result was an extremely flexible yet strong and lightweight metal alloy. It was rather eye catching, it's coloring a shimmering greenish gray with veins of silver throughout. Eggman did his usual attribute testing, one of the tests included shocking the product with a low volt shock of electricity. He was surprised when the alloy changed colors and density. It had turned a dark navy blue with brown and green stripes. Eggman had immediately gotten an idea, and he rushed off to the robot room to work on his new Metal Sonic.

One time, he had left the robot room to make more 'Oxyhalodinc' as he had named his new metal. In Egghead's absence, Cubot and Grounder had snuck into the robot room to see what Eggman was up to. When they saw the Metal Sonic's robotic skeleton, Cubot yelled in fright, causing Grounder to whack him (hard!) in the back of the head. Cubot's head spun around, then straightened up unnaturally. He picked up a nearby pipe, and Grounder finally realized that _maybe_ he shouldn't have hit Cubot quite so hard.

"Yarr ya scurvy dog! If ya weren't such a landlubber, I'd think ya had a chance! Ha Ha! Yarr!" Cubot shouted in a pirate voice. He swung the pipe at Grounder just when Eggman came back into the room. Cubot heard something mid swing, and he twisted his head around to see who was there, giving Grounder the chance to duck. Cubot saw Eggman's expression go from a scowl to panic. Just then, "pirate" Cubot's pipe collided with the Metal Sonic skeleton.

"Nooooooooo!" Eggman yelled. He then promptly kicked both robots unceremoniously out of the robot room. The rest of the morning, he had worked on the robot, adding a powerful gold orb motor that allowed the robot to transform itself without losing as much power.

Eggman, back in the present, allowed himself a wide grin as he interlocked his fingers. Those two imbeciles were on ship cleaning duty, each in his own pod, flying to different ships to get out and mop. _They shouldn't despair so much, they'll be done around midnight! Oh, yeah, that's why they're so sad._ Eggman thought happily. He leaned forward in his seat to see how things were going down below.

**Under the Egg Fleet**

Sonic laughed at the robot until his sides were sore. Tails laughed right along with him. The Egg Pawn army standing behind Metal Sonic looked at each other confusedly.

"Uh, uh." Sonic grunted, catching his breath. "Sorry," he said to the robot. Tails kept laughing until Sonic elbowed him. Surprisingly, the Metal Sonic didn't look angry. Instead, he shrugged.

"I know I look pitiful, and I really am so -" he had started to say. Up in the Egg Fleet, Eggman was fuming. This robot was supposed to be acting threatening! He quickly overrode the robot's emotion program from the deck of the main Egg Fleet ship. Sonic had been holding back another gale of laughter when the Metal Sonic was cut off.

"Uh, stripy? Anyone home?" Sonic asked, not really sure that anyone _was_ "home" inside that robot's head.

"Oh, yes. There _is_ someone home in this seemingly empty head. Someone who is eager to _destroy you_!" replied the Metal Sonic menacingly, starting to transform himself. His crossed eyes suddenly didn't look so dopey. A strange whirring noise had started to drone and the Metal Sonic had suddenly changed into a fearsome looking Werehog doppelganger! The Werebot lunged at Sonic, who dashed out of the way.

"Tails! Find his weak spot," Sonic called to his friend, cocking his head to add importance to his message. Tails slightly grimaced, but then he set to work on sneaking around behind the Werebot that Sonic was distracting. Sonic teased and smirked and did every prank he knew to keep that robot from looking around as Tails analyzed the situation.

It didn't take very long for Tails to notice a golden orb sticking slightly out of the back of the Werebot. _Now is not the time to think it over it too much. Just do it!_ Tails thought, then he lurched forward and snatched the golden sphere from the back of the Werebot. An unpleasant shock came immediately afterwards. Tails's fur fluffed out, tingling, and a weird smoky smell started wafting into Sonic's nose. Tails's eyes were wide with shock, and the Werebot collapsed in front of the stricken fox.

"Tails? Are you alright buddy?" Sonic cried, running over to him. Sonic wived his hand in front of the kit's face until he suddenly blinked.

"Sonic..." Tails rasped. "Can you, uh... take me home? I'm not feeling so well." Tails made a pitiful expression to go along with that statement, and that was all that Sonic needed to convince him to carry Tails back to the workshop. Sonic gently picked Tails up, then he took off in the direction of Tail's workshop. Tails, cradled in Sonic's arms like the little brother Sonic saw him as, was still grasping the golden orb. _I'll have to ask him about that later..._Sonic thought as he ran along.

Once they had reached the workshop, Tails had nearly fallen asleep, and Sonic was suddenly ready for a quick nap. He'd had a busy day, and it wasn't over yet! Sonic opened the door and walked in, closing it with a kick. He carried Tails up to the attic of the workshop, where they kept two beds if they needed to stay overnight. Sonic tossed Tails onto one of the beds, and immediately winced at his groans.

"Sorry pal, I forgot that, uh..." Sonic rubbed the back of his head apologetically.

"You don't say?" Tails replied sorely, laying still.

"Ah, Tails, you don't have to be that way," Sonic said, then, "OK, you win! What do you want me to do for you?" Tails smiled up at Sonic.

"Well, could you read from my book of poetry? I read that poetry stimulates the growth of intelligence. Please, _please_?" Tails asked pitifully, noticing the sour look that had crossed Sonic's face. Sonic sighed, and grabbed the book.

"Alrighty then, I'll read it. _If_ you tell me what that gold ball is!" Sonic replied. Tails nodded reasonably, as if expecting that question.

"Yes, well, when I was looking at that robot, I could tell that the orb was an engine or some kind of power source. That was one of the most shoddily built robots Eggman has ever sent out for combat that I've ever seen. I'm worried that it's some kind of trick..." Tails trailed off, a worried expression spreading across his face. Sonic, noticing Tails' uneasiness, plopped down on the other bed and opened up the book of poetry.

"OK, let's see here. 'The Snow'. Does that one sound good to you?" Sonic asked. Tails nodded in response.

"Here goes nothing;

_The Snow  
>by Trevor Verily the Puma<em>

_Gazing out the frosty window I see,  
>Snow that seems to come for me.<em>

_Snowflakes fall from the sky in a crystalline wealth,  
>Imploring me with silent calls to come and amuse myself.<em>

_I choose to listen, and rush outside,  
>The snow asks if with them I'll bide.<em>

_I give my friend a saucy wink,  
>I can stay for a while, I certainly think!<em>"

Sonic made a weird face when he finished reading the poem. "OK, that was one of the weirdest poems I've ever read. That last part was especially who-on-Mobius-wrote-this?" Tails gave Sonic an annoyed look.

"I liked it. You just don't understand poetry, Sonic." Tails said reproachfully. _OK, whatever you say, pal!_ Thought Sonic.

Three sappy poems later, Tails had drifted off to sleep, and not a moment to soon for Sonic, who was ready to fall asleep himself! He snuck back down into the main level of the workshop and logged onto the computer. Sonic wanted to find someplace to go while his friend slept. _Just a little spice of adventure to end the day,_ Sonic reasoned. A window popped up to the forefront, advertising a 'Breathtaking & Historical Adventure Vacation at Mirage Road Zone'.

"Been there, done that!" Sonic commented out loud. "But then again, why not? Things are probably different there now that it's not overrun with robots!" Sonic stood up then, his mind made. "Mirage Road, watch out 'cause here I come!" he then dashed out of the front door.

**Unknown**

Blaze opened her eyes and immediately felt woozy. She could tell right from the start that one; she was no longer in the secret chamber, two; that she was in a place with sweltering heat, and three; she was extremely high up. "Ooooh..." Blaze groaned and closed her eyes. Her head was throbbing, and she had no idea where she was. She could only lay there, until a noise caught her interest. Blaze opened her eyes up a little bit, to see if she could peek at what was going on.

Down below the lavender feline, a blue spiky robot was talking to another robot. Blaze could hear exactly what they were saying, thanks to her cat ears.

"Alright then. This is your post-where you will stay-for the time being. These ruins are called Mirage Road Zone, and we just need you to stay here and tall Eggman and I if anything interesting happens. I doubt it though. No one comes here anymore..." the blue robot said. Blaze did not like his voice, there was something untrustworthy about it.

"Oh, yes. I will do just as you have instructed me to do sir great mighty Neo Metal Sonic sir!" replied the other robot, which looked something like a dingo mummy with some pirate decorations. _Neo Metal Sonic...Hmm, this could mean that I'm in Sonic's world now._ Blaze thought, then the overwhelming heat lulled her back to sleep.

**Entrance to Mirage Road Zone**

Sonic had arrived at Mirage Road Zone without a sight of trouble, and he hadn't even broken a sweat yet. "Here we are, then! Man, it sure is a lot quieter than I remember this place to be," mused Sonic. He then took off into the ruins. He was dashing through the biggest pyramid when a sudden burst of flame blocked his path. "Whoa!" he yelled in surprise. By some kind of instinct, he looked up, and saw a familiar figure.

"Blaze?"


	8. Anarchy Emeralds

**Anarchy Emeralds**

Rouge and Omega had just caught up to Angel Island. "Phew! Omega, I wasn't sure we would ever catch up to this flying rock!" Rouge cried as she landed on the ground with a satisfied look on her face.

"I agree. This proved to be a difficult chase!" said Omega as he too landed on the ground. "I am now afraid that my flight boosters are 'busted'." Omega said, sounding slightly worried. Right after he said that, Angel Island rapidly lurched to the east.

"Whoooaaaa!" Rouge screamed as she clutched onto Omega's back. Omega spewed some random beeping noises. Just as suddenly as it had started moving, Angel Island stopped still.

"C'mon Omega! Let's get moving and find Knuckles! I'll bet he can explain this." Rouge said. _And maybe I'll be able to find some Chaos Emeralds at the same time!_ She added in her head. Rouge flew ahead of Omega to scope out the jungle ahead of them. She saw a stone ruin rise up ahead of her after a few minutes.

"This way, Omega! I see the ruin!" Rouge called enthusiastically. She dropped back to her feet and waited for Omega to catch up. "There you are, slowpoke!" Rouge teased. "Now follow me. I know this part of the jungle." They hiked and climbed and, for Omega's case, nearly blew up the whole island. Rouge thankfully was able to defuse his temper. They finally reached the top and saw the Master Emerald's temple. A flight of stairs lay before them, consisting of nearly one-hundred steps! Rouge sighed, then stretched out her wings.

"OK, I'll meet you at the top, Omega!" Rouge cried, then she burst off the ground with a strong flap of her wings. It took her barely a minute to fly to the top, but when she landed, Omega had barely stomped up to the ten-step mark. Rouge smirked at him and walked away, looking for Knuckles. She soon found him clinging to the Master Emerald, looking woozy.

"So, Knuckles do you know why Angel Island is warping like this?" Rouge asked, getting straight down to business. Knuckles grimaced and stood up shakily. He straightened out his back and cracked his knuckles. Rouge groaned.

"_Well?_" asked Rouge commandingly. Knuckles started grinding his teeth and his face started to get even redder.

"I have no idea why Angel Island is doing this! What do you want me to do about it, bat?" Knuckles yelled, waving his fist for emphasis. In truth, he had never felt more helpless. Rouge noticed that Knuckles seemed a little less explosive than he usually was. _I wonder what's wrong?_ Rouge wondered, looking at Knuckles.

**Mirage Road Zone**

Sonic looked up at the shadowy figure that had created a ring of fire around him. He was pretty sure that it was his good friend, Blaze. Blaze was the only person that he knew who could control fire. Sonic was confused though. He had just called out her name, yet the flame was still creeping slowly towards the blue hedgehog. _Did she hear me?_ Sonic thought. Blaze had, in fact heard Sonic, but nearly an hour before, hadn't she seen _Metal Sonic_? This _had_ to be the robot she had seen before. It was even trying to play with her mind! Blaze had been trained in self defense and many other helpful skills that would make her a princess that didn't get kidnapped every other day. It was elementary for her to ignore every word this robot said. Sonic resolved that he wasn't going to wait around for Blaze to make up her mind. He found a weak spot in the fire and charged through, moving too fast for the fire to scorch him.

Sonic ran right towards Blaze, who kept on throwing fireballs in his path. Sonic quickly jumped out of the way. "Blaze? Why are you trying to catch your old pal on fire?" Sonic yelled at her out of frustration. Blaze narrowed her eyes. _This robot really does sound like Sonic... I must not let it fool me though!_ Blaze thought determinedly. She created a wall of fire around herself to deflect the approaching attacker.

An idea popped into Sonic's head, one that he didn't like, but would probably have to use. Blaze forced a wall of fire in his direction. Sonic dashed out of the way and finally made up his mind. "I'm really sorry for this, but you've left me no choice!" Sonic muttered, then he started to run around Blaze in a wide circle. He ran faster and faster, his circles getting smaller. A cyclone appeared. The fire started to dissipate, and Sonic could hear Blaze gasp and cough, and gasp again. Sonic winced and stopped, his eyes were closed and he wasn't sure what was about to happen.

Blaze had gone to her knees, her hands clasped over her chest when the cyclone disappeared. _Just when I had thought the robot was going to finish me off! Why has he stopped?_ Blaze wondered, and tentatively opened up one of her eyes. What she saw was most _definitely_ not a robot. It was Sonic, tapping his foot and covering his face. Blaze coughed once, then shakily stood up.

"S-sonic?" she asked, as if she couldn't believe he was there. Sonic uncovered his face, looking a little worried. Blaze laughed at him. "Don't worry! I'm not going to scorch your spikes!" Then a look of puzzlement crossed her face. "Hey! It was _you _who made a tornado around me!" Sonic shrugged nonchalantly.

"Well, you've gotta do what you've gotta do. Besides, you weren't really giving me a choice!" Sonic replied. Blaze blushed profusely when the realization hit her.

"Oh, I'm very sorry Sonic! I saw Metal Sonic here, and, well...I ignored what you said to me because I assumed that you were the robot." Blaze said apologetically. Her face then turned serious again, and Sonic's did too.

"Sadly we're going to have to chat a little bit later, Blaze. So you say my least favorite robot doppelganger has 'graced' these ruins with his presence?" Sonic asked sarcastically.

"Yes. It was definitely Metal Sonic! He was talking to some other robot that I'm assuming was a 'Robian'." Blaze informed Sonic, looking stone faced like usual. Just then, a loud crash startled the two friends. Blaze's fur fluffed out, and Sonic made a face.

"What in the world?" Sonic cried out. Blaze turned around to see what had caused the crash.

"Sonic...I think you might be interested in this." She stated simply. _This can't be good!_ Sonic thought worriedly. He turned around tensely, ready for anything. Well, anything but what he saw. In front of the blue hero stood a giant robot, nearly three times his size! It looked like some kind of dingo mummy, and it had a golden headdress with loads of feathers attached to it. Dozens of golden bracelets clanked around on it's burly arms, and a heavy looking necklace hung around it's neck.

"Dang, Eggman sure didn't lay off on the bling this time!" commented Sonic. He really couldn't help it! Blaze frowned contemplatively.

"Well, the sooner we break this thing, the sooner I can go home," reasoned Blaze. "I will help you Sonic, if you promise to help me find the Sol Emeralds!" Blaze bargained. Sonic grinned and gave the princess his trademark thumbs-up. Blaze smiled, and said,"Let's do this!"

The robot's eyes suddenly flickered yellow. "R-2n0 model 'Mirage King' is online. Do not approach because it attacks with no weather-100010101-Mirage King meant _warning_." Sonic snickered. Blaze smiled.

Sonic ran up to the robot. "So, big guy. What are you doing here? I mean, besides creeping around tooting your own horn!" he asked teasingly. The giant robot looked down at Sonic.

"Mirage King was sent here to watch for Sonic the Hedgehog. That means he must ask both of your names. You?" Mirage King pointed at Sonic. "What is your name?"

"Oh, my name? That's easy! Sonic the Hedgehog's my name! It's so nice to have so many fans!" Sonic replied cockily. The robot froze for a minute, then he made a gasping noise.

"Huuurrrraagghh! Then it really _is_ you! Get ready to be smashed to bits, _stylishly. _Mirage King will get lots and lots of treasure for this! The mean fat man will most surely pat Mirage King on the head for this..." the robot blabbered on and on, giving Blaze a chance to stealthily get behind him. Her fists warmed up, and flame became visible. She directed a large fireball towards the backside of the robot. The papery wrappings proved to be extremely flammable! Blaze smiled as the whole back of the robot became alight with flame. _What can I say? I love what I do._ Blaze thought rather smugly.

"Yow!" yelled the Mirage King, twisting around to see who had caught him unceremoniously on fire. "Mirage King says: Do not set him on fire again little purple kitty!" Sonic took the robot's distraction as a chance to give the 'King' a kick in the shin. Sonic might as well have kicked a tree trunk for all the effect he had! Sonic yelped and snatched his foot, barely managing to balance on his other leg. Blaze noticed that Sonic had an issue, so she made sure to turn up the heat on Mirage King. The giant robot decided he'd had enough of being Blaze's punching bag, and with a growl, he swatted her away.

"Ack!" Blaze cried when she was hit. She hit a wall and saw a flash of white. _I must have his this wall really hard, because in that room I see a Chaos statue! With... a Chaos Emerald in its mouth? _"Ugh..." Blaze groaned and closed her eyes.

Sonic had glanced over in the direction he thought Blaze had gone, and he instantly regretted it. Blaze certainly did not look too well. _OK, it looks like Blaze is out for the count. That means that I'll have to fight as hard as the both of us would have!_ He then dodged out of the way when Mirage King tried to swat _him_! Meanwhile, no one noticed the Egg Pod as it descended into the pyramid. No one noticed the Egg Pod pick up a certain lavender-colored cat with a mechanical claw, either.

Sonic was busy trading insults with Mirage King when Eggman interrupted. "Ahem! Well, if it isn't my most favorite least liked nemesis, Sonic the Hedgehog." Sonic rolled his eyes. _Seriously! This guy might as well talk with paradoxes for all the sense he makes!_ "Now, hedgehog, I'd appreciate it if you payed attention to my lecture that I'm about to give to you. It may or may not prove useful to you. If my plan turns out as I'd hoped, then it won't be useful to you, thus you've just wasted your time! Any way, do you remember that mind control machine I built a few months ago at my space amusement park? Well, it didn't work quite as I had expected it would! I hadn't gathered enough hyper-go-on power to make my machine last! Back to present, I have rebuilt my machine-"

"Oh, of course you have..." Sonic couldn't help but mutter.

"Excuse me, but I was talking! Anyway, I've found a new power source that works almost as well as the wisp's power. Do you want to guess where I get it from? No, I suppose not, since I'm just going to tell you anyway. This is what you call a 'Chao', I believe. They have a surprising amount of Chaos energy inside! Surprising as it may seem, this Chaos energy wonderfully charges up my mind control machine!" Eggman held up a struggling Chao.

"Chao, choo, chaoooo!" cried the little creature, flapping its wings. It was an adorable creature, with a petal pink and light blue colored body and purple wings.

Sonic made a disgusted face. "That's sick, Eggman!" The hedgehog snatched the Chao from Eggman quickly, petting the frightened creature to soothe it. "You have **seriously** got a problem! Stealing the energy from the poor little Chao..." Eggman waved away Sonic's exclamation.

"Oh, but that's not even all! I found a perfect little subject to use for my test run. You may have noticed that a little while ago your friend Blaze was acting...strangely." Sonic got a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He _knew_ where this was going. "My mind control machine is working wonderfully, thanks to Blaze's test run that she so kindly ran for me. Although... she didn't really have a choice! Now, are you ready to see what happens when a pyromaniac is on the loose, after you, without _any _interruptions?" Two huge canisters were latched onto the back of Eggman's Egg Pod. They glowed changing colors.

A claw popped out of the green gem in the front of the Egg Pod, holding a struggling Blaze. Sonic noticed an inhibitor collar around her neck, which effectively quelled her fire powers. "You monster!" Blaze yelled at Eggman indignantly. Sonic gasped.

"You're not even giving her a chance!" Sonic growled.

"You... are going to regret this Eggman! Once I get this collar off... you're finished!" Blaze threatened, having lost her cool finally. Eggman only smiled.

"OK, you've convinced me. I'll take the collar off." Eggman said, uncharacteristically kind. He pulled the futuristic looking inhibitor from Blaze's neck. Blaze stared blankly at Eggman, surprised. Then, she grinned and conjured up a fireball.

"Big mistake, Egghead!" both Blaze and Sonic said at the same time.

"No, yours." Eggman replied, then the mind control beam hit Blaze.

"Here we go again..." Sonic grumbled. "OK, little guy. Hang on tight! This shouldn't take too long." Sonic said, putting his chao on one of his spikes. The little critter grabbed on to Sonic's top quill, ready to go. Blaze came running up to meet Sonic, both her hands on fire. "Heh, déjà vu!" Sonic chuckled as he thought of the last time he and Blaze had gone, _literally_, head-to-head. "Don't worry little buddy," Sonic said to the chao. "This should only take two minutes!" In twice as many minutes, Blaze had Sonic streaking away from her with a singed tail.

"You'll never escape!" Blaze yelled, sounding very out of character. Sonic's emerald eyes darted back and forth, looking for somewhere to hide for a few seconds, or maybe wait until Eggman's Chaos juice ran out. The cobalt hedgehog ran into a huge room with small windows at the top of the ceiling. The evening's last rays of sun filtered through the windows, all of them seeming to point at one thing.

A humongous statue of Perfect Chaos, the water monster that Sonic knew all too well. He stepped backwards unconsciously. A fireball nearly clipped his right ear, reminding him that Blaze was still on his tail. Sonic noticed a yellow glimmer coming from the wide-open mouth of Chaos. A plan began to form in his mind.

**Angel Island**

Rouge decided to try a different technique for prying the story out of Knuckles. She blinked a couple times, and a sugary sweet smile played on her lips. "Knuxie, are you sure you cannot think of any other time this has happened? That could really help me, and the G.U.N solve this mystery." Knuckles sat back against the Master Emerald, looking thoughtful.

"Hmmm... now that I really think about it... I remember!" an excited expression crossed the echidna's face. Rouge's eyes widened.

"What? _What_ do you remember?" Rouge asked impatiently. Knuckles held up one hand, his eyes closed. For once, he didn't blow his top at Rouge.

"Patience! I remember that a few months ago, Angel Island was doing something very simialar to this... except, it was much worse then, now that I think about it. Warping to whole different zones! This is actually pretty mild, compared to that," Knuckles elaborated. Just then, the floating island lurched to the south. Rouge fell backwards, about to fall down the staircase.

"Got you!" said Omega, who had reached the top of the stairs just in time to catch Rouge. She had a hard time flying when she was surprised, like the time she had almost fallen into a lava pit. Rouge took a few calming breaths.

"Phew! Thanks, Omega." Rouge said gratefully.

"No problem," Omega replied.

"Right. So, Knuckles. You said this happened before. Can you think of anything that could have caused that?" Rouge quickly continued her questioning.

"Well, I the Chaos Emeralds got drained of there positive energy around that time. I also heard that Sonic was turned into some kind of monster when that happened!" Knuckles looked thoughtful. "But... I have five of the Chaos Emeralds right here! They're fine. So is the Master Emerald!" Rouge had been taking notes of Knuckles' statements in a heart-shaped journal. She snapped it shut in a satisfied way.

"Thanks, Knuckles. I think that this information will really help the G.U.N' investigation! Also, I think that this tidbit will interest you. I saw Sonic earlier today, and I can safely say that he wasn't quite himself." Rouge smirked, pleased to squeeze a little gossip in. "He's that monster thing again! I've decided that Sonic is now, a werehog!" Rouge said, giggling at the name she had made up for Sonic' s new form. Knuckles groaned.

"Look, I told you what I know. Now LEAVE!" Knuckles said, yelling the last part. Rouge feigned slight fear at Knuckle's outburst, decidedly bumping into one of the pillars that held a Chaos Emerald. Rouge held a hand behind her back, smoothly catching the falling purple gem. She winked at Omega and stretched out her right wing slightly, signaling that they should leave.

"OK, OK, OK! We'll leave!" Rouge said, taking off into the sky with a flap of her strong wings, Omega gave Knuckles a parting glare, then stomped away after Rouge. Rouge turned around slowly after getting a safe distance from Knuckles. "Thanks for the jewelry, by the way!" she smirked.

**Mirage Road Zone**

Sonic ran at full speed towards the huge statue of Perfect Chaos, breaking the sound barrier as he went. Blaze and Eggman cringed at the extremely loud noise. Sonic dashed up the back of the statue of Chaos and hopped into his gaping mouth. Just as he had suspected, a yellow Chaos Emerald was wedged in between two teeth. Sonic yanked the glowing gem out from between the teeth.

"Sweet!" Sonic said. He held the Chaos Emerald in front of his chest. "Chaos Control!" the cobalt hedgehog yelled. He reappeared behind Eggman's Egg Pod and wasted no time in smashing the tanks of Chaos energy.

"How did you-?" Eggman cried in frustration. Sonic ignored Eggman and ran over to the collapsed form of Blaze. The hedgehog didn't notice the Egg Pod retreat into the shadows.

"Blaze, Blaze! Are you OK?" Sonic asked frantically, shaking the cat's shoulder roughly. She groggily got up and waved her tail back and forth.

"I-I'm fine. But... why is my nose hair tingling?" Blaze asked, perplexed. Sonic burst into laughter. Blaze glared at him. "What?" Blaze asked. Being a princess, she wasn't used to having people laugh at her. A few moments passed.

"Ahm... you wouldn't understand." Sonic replied at last.

The sun outside seemed to have suddenly let the moon take control of the skies. The darkening sky looked like a smokey blue velvet stretched across the sky, with bright diamonds studding its length. Sonic was admiring the view out of a small window in the wall. The moon rose over the horizon. All of the sudden, a strange feeling crossed Sonic's body. "Oh _no_!" he yelped. _How could I have forgotten?_ Sonic thought furiously.

Blaze watched in amazement as Sonic was enveloped in a purple light. There was a blinding flash and suddenly she saw a monster in Sonic's place! Blaze gasped and Sonic grimaced. When Blaze's eyes widened in fear Sonic realized that grimacing hadn't been the best idea, because he had given Blaze a lovely view of his sharpened teeth. Her fist became engulfed with fire, ready to attack, but Sonic reached out and grabbed her arm.

"Wait, Blaze! It's me, Sonic." he said. Blaze suddenly realized that frightening form _did_ sort of look like Sonic. The flame around her fist flickered out.

"S-sonic?" Blaze questioned, just to make sure. Sonic made a cool pose.

"The one and only!" he said, his rumbly werehog voice suddenly sounding a lot more familiar. Blaze walked towards her friend.

"But... how? How did this happen?" Blaze couldn't help but ask. Meanwhile, Eggman pulled out a camera.

"Cheese," he mumbled, and took the picture. _This is going to prove very useful in the next step of 'The Plan'!_ Eggman thought to himself. He steered the Egg Pod out a large opening in the top of the pyramid.

Sonic explained to Blaze what he knew of Eggman's plan, and what had happened so far. Blaze's eyes had suddenly wandered to a spot on one of Sonic's spikes.

"Um, what's that?" she queried. Sonic suddenly remembered the chao he had rescued earlier.

"Oh! I rescued this little guy from Eggman earlier! He- or... she is doing well!" Sonic said, holding the little creature in his palm. Blaze took the chao from him.

"_She_ definitely looks like her name should be Petal." Blaze said, and the pink chao cuddled against the lavender cat's chest. Sonic looked puzzled.

"How did you know she was a girl?"

"Don't you know anything about chao anatomy? Her wings are large, and she's very petite!" was Blaze's reply. The chao winked at Sonic in affirmation.

"Um, well... that's nice, I guess." Sonic started to smile, but stopped himself. "Its getting late. I definitely have some questions for you, but now's not the time. Do you have anywhere to stay?" Blaze thought for a moment.

"I'm very sure that Vanilla and Cream will let me stay with them until I can find a way back home. I know the way to there house." Blaze said happily. "They're always so kind." she smiled.

"OK, that's that. Well, I guess this is good bye for now!" Sonic said cheerfully.

"Yes. And I hope that if you need any help, Eggman or otherwise, you will immediately ask me!" Blaze said encouragingly. Sonic winked.

"OK. Stay out of trouble for a while, Blaze. If that's possible!" he laughed at his joke and walked outside.

The stars overhead winked and sparkled. Sonic felt reassured that with his friends to help him, he would somehow be able to stop Eggman, just as he had always managed before.


	9. Chasing Shadows

**Chasing Shadows**

Sonic rushed to Tails' workshop. Sonic growled at no one in particular. "...So stupid! How could I let Blaze see me like this...?" Sonic shook his head. He stopped running and sat down for a moment, observing himself. Sonic looked at his spiky shoes, clawed hands, and then his stretchy arms. _OK, OK, I know I look strange, but I'm still _me_! _Sonic thought, and he smiled, feeling much happier. The werehog got back to his feet and started running to Tail's Workshop. He loped past a few Egg Pawns on the way. Sonic grinned and quickly smashed them. "Ahh, something about smashing 'bots makes me feel good!"

After fifteen more minutes, Sonic had arrived at the front door of the workshop. He was about to knock when he remembered that Tails was sleeping. Instead of knocking, Sonic pulled the key for the door out from underneath the doormat. _For being a genius, Tails, you sure are predictable! _Sonic thought, chuckling softly to himself.

Sonic opened the door gently and stepped inside, closing the door behind him. A ferocious growling sound startled Sonic. He immediately glanced down at his stomach, placing a hand on it. "Man, I haven't eaten since lunch, and now it's... 10:30! Time to have a snack!" Sonic said. He approached the mini refrigerator, his stomach still rumbling. He grabbed the latch and yanked it. A creaking, screeching noise could be heard all through the house.

Sonic was left staring in bewilderment at a torn and twisted piece of metal that had used to be a refrigerator door. "That," Sonic said with conviction. "Was strange." Sonic grabbed a frozen chili dog from the fridge and placed it inside a microwave. As Sonic waited for his dinner to defrost, he stood, contemplating what had just happened. "Either my memory's going bad, or I'm getting stronger!" Sonic said. He raised up his right arm and started to flex it when he heard thumping on the stairs. Sonic quickly stretched out his arms to an extraordinary length and placed the mangled refrigerator door where it was supposed to be.

Tails plodded down the last step, rubbing his eyes wearily and mumbling to himself. The fox looked up suddenly. "Sonic! What was that racket all about?" Tails asked accusingly. "You woke me up!" Sonic shot a guilty glance at the refrigerator.

"Just... getting a snack!" said the werehog, shrugging his large shoulders. Just then, the microwave beeped. Tails sighed tiredly.

"Well, I know that's not the entire story, but I'm too tired to investigate. …Good night... Sonic." Tails said tiredly as he walked back up the steps to the attic. After the fox had disappeared, the refrigerator door crashed onto the floor. Sonic listened closely for Tails, but, besides a groan, the young fox didn't seem to have the energy to come back downstairs. Sonic grinned, and promptly at his Chili Dog whole.

**Eggman's Airship**

Eggman sat on his huge comfy chair that was on the observation deck of his giant airship. He tapped away at his keyboard, a screen hovering in front of his face. Four robots milled around the observation deck. They knew not to mess with the boss when he was working on his computer. As the Eggman often said, "I need to focus on my plans for world domination!"

Orbot and Scratch were having an argument about who had the better hardware while Grounder and Cubot were checking out some pictures on the computer.

"Ah do say, that's a mighty fine lady there!" Cubot said, observing a picture of a vacuum cleaner. Grounder nodded enthusiastically. Scratch and Orbot walked by, still arguing.

"Look at this! I can pull a phone out of my chest! Can _you_ do that?" Scratch said tauntingly to Orbot.

"No, I cannot pull a phone out of my chest, but look at how old and outdated yours is!" Orbot said, looking in disgust at Scratch's phone.

"Ooh! Now you've done it! When I'm done with you-"

"QUIET!" Eggman yelled, sounding extremely annoyed. All the robots froze, not wanting to further irritate their boss.

"Sorry boss!" all four robots chorused. Eggman frowned and pointed at the four.

"Don't let it happen again. I'm working! I need to finish calling Neo Metal Sonic back, and I need to send that picture to… well, you don't need to know." Eggman said, and then started tapping at his computer again. "And, send!" he said, sending an e-mail to someone called _Vecmanagency . _

A few minutes later, the skylight of Eggman's airship opened up, letting Neo Metal Sonic in. He landed on the floor with a sharp thud. After standing up to his full height, he glared out of the window.

"So, Sonic got away again." Neo said flatly, as if his mind was elsewhere. "Oh well, there's always next time." He said, but there was a strangely dangerous tone to the positive sentence.

"Yes…" Eggman said. Some may have wondered why Eggman would want to have such a dangerous robot on his side, but his thoughts were that if he could keep Neo focused on Sonic, then the robot wouldn't have the time to plan another rebellion. "Well, I know that you just got back Neo, but I have another assignment for you. Here's my plan," Eggman said, handing his right-hand robot a sheet of paper that had his plans printed on it.

"I'll get right on it doctor." Neo said, and then flew out of the skylight for the second time that night.

**Vanilla and Cream's House**

Blaze sighed with relief as she stood at the front porch of Vanilla and Cream's house. It had been a long walk from the pyramids of Mirage Road Zone, and the night sky had only gotten darker. Blaze knocked at the front door. In a minute, Vanilla the Rabbit opened the door cautiously. A look of surprise played across her face.

"Oh, Blaze, dear, what are you doing here? And so late…?" Vanilla asked Blaze with motherly concern.

"It's a long story," Blaze said simply, with a sheepish expression on her face. "I promise I'll tell you the whole tale tomorrow though." Vanilla smiled and gestured for Blaze to come in.

"We're always glad to have you, dear." The mother rabbit said kindly.

Cream had woken up by then, and she had come downstairs to see what was going on. She squealed with delight and ran up to hug Blaze.

"Hey Cream!" Blaze said happily, picking up the young rabbit. Cream looked quite happy, but a little confused as well. "I know you're wondering how I got transported back to your world, but I'll tell you both what's happened so far," Blaze couldn't suppress a yawn, no matter how many manners had been drilled into her head. "But today has been a very long day, so do you mind if I use this couch?" Blaze said, partially to Cream, and partially to Vanilla. Vanilla stood up from the couch she had sat down on.

"Oh, we can do much better than this couch for you to sleep on, dear!" Vanilla said, and then kindly directed the tired Blaze to a guest room. It didn't take ten minutes for Blaze to fall into a deep sleep.

**Tails' Workshop**

Werehog Sonic sighed tiredly, but he couldn't go to sleep. It was a weird side affect that he'd noticed since being a werehog again. During the night, when Sonic was transformed, he could feel a strange energy pulsating through him, making him feel full of power. This constant adrenaline boost would be very useful if Sonic happened to run in to some Eggbots, but when he just wanted to sleep, Sonic wasn't enjoying the continuous flow of werehog energy.

Sonic flicked an ear, bored. He sprawled across a small couch that he and Tails had somehow fit into the small workshop. His eyelids felt heavy, and he tried to drift off into sleep, but it wouldn't come to him. Sonic sat up and looked at a digital clock hanging on the wall. He groaned. It was 1:30 am already! Sonic sat up and grabbed a Sega Dreamcast controller. He played Sonic Adventure for a little while, but the calming Chao Garden music made him finally drift off to sleep.

…

Sonic crouched down to the ground, catching his breath. He looked up, his bright green eyes piercing through his foggy surroundings. "Eggman! I know you're there, so you'd might as well show yourself!" Eggman stepped out of the mist, accompanied by Neo Metal Sonic.

"Oh Sonic, there's no need to get your quills in a twist!" Eggman said, mocking Sonic. Sonic gritted his teeth.

"What have you done this time?" Sonic said, straightening himself up and tugging his gloves up.

"Well, it's a bit rude to just ask an evil genius what he's up to, don't you think? I should be able to tell you if I want to! I really dislike your attitude, you pincushion! But anyway, you needn't worry about what I'm up to, because you're going to find out right now!" Eggman said with a laugh, and pushed a button on a remote that he pulled out of his scarlet colored coat.

"You think you can fool me again? Well, you'd better think again!" Sonic said, confidently dodging Eggman's remote laser. After he had landed steadily on his feet, Sonic solemnly closed his eyes.

Seven Chaos Emeralds appeared, and began to slowly circle around Sonic. Eggman watched, shocked, as Sonic made a glowing transformation into Super Sonic. Sonic's blue spikes turned a glowing yellow color, and pointed upwards, his emerald green eyes turned a brilliant shade of ruby.

"Now," Sonic said, looking seriously up at Eggman with his ruby colored eyes. "I believe there was something you wanted to show me?" the glowing yellow hedgehog smirked at Eggman. Eggman stumbled a couple steps backwards, obviously troubled by Super Sonic.

"Well , it's not really anything that important… I'm sure you don't need to get so excited!" Eggman began to talk fast. Super Sonic gave Eggman a stare, not satisfied by his answer. "Okay, Okay, here's what happened," Eggman began to ramble, pressing a button on his remote that he had hidden behind his back.

Neo Metal Sonic propelled forward, tackling Super Sonic. Sonic threw his robot doppelganger over one shoulder easily, and braced himself for the next impact. While Sonic was distracted by the Metal Sonic, Eggman pushed a third button that was on his remote. A purple energy ring closed in on Super Sonic, and then another, and another! Super Sonic struggled to break free, but those energy rings were somehow suppressing his chaos energy.

"So, who's the loser now, Sonic?" Eggman asked, sticking his tongue out rudely. Super Sonic glared at his rival, but he couldn't escape. The purple energy rings began to close around him even faster, and Sonic felt his energy draining from him. With a flash, he reverted back to his normal self, and just before he passed out, he watched in horror as the Chaos Emeralds turned into dull black stones and disintegrated.

…

"Whaaa!" Sonic yelled in alarm after he jolted awake. "Oh, …good grief…" Sonic panted. That dream, it had been so _real_! Sonic wiped his brow in mock relief, and glanced over at the digital clock. It was 6:10 am. Not much longer until he transformed back to his normal self…

**Chaotix Detective Agency, 6:13 a.m.**

A loud snoring was disturbed by a loud _ding_ noise, signaling that the printer was working. "Wha-? Now, how's that happening?" Vector the crocodile shook his head to clear the morning fogginess. He rubbed his head as he stood, still slightly snoring. Vector walked over to his computer desk and picked up the mysterious printed picture.

"Hmm… what is that?" Vector muttered to himself, closely observing the slightly blurry image. There appeared to be a lavender colored cat, and a furry navy blue creature. The creature looked familiar to Vector, but he couldn't quite think of anyone who looked exactly like that. Vector continued staring at the picture until the printer started to life again. Vector watched with confusion as another page printed out. This time, there were only words on the page, no pictures. Vector put down the picture and picked up the new page. He read it quickly, his brow furrowing as he went.

**Greetings, Chaotix Detective Agency.**

**I am sending you this message to go with the picture that I have already sent, figuring that you would be confused by it. Let me tell you first, that this is an extremely important mission that I am assigning you, as detectives. What I want you to do is find out who is in the picture, and what is happening in it. I want you to examine every clue. Leave no stone unturned! Once you **_**do **_**solve the mystery, I want you to make sure that your triumph is made known far and wide.**

**Just in case you want to know what's in it for you, there is a large cash reward waiting for you. **

**-Anonymous**

Vector laid the page down and sat back in his chair with a smirk on his face. _A large cash reward! This could be our big break!_ Vector thought excitedly, leaning even farther back. "Whaa!" Vector yelled, toppling over the back of his chair. A purple chameleon that had been resting peacefully in a corner jumped to his feet, immediately awake.

"What's this all about, Vector?" he asked Vector, who was sprawling on the floor.

"Espio! I got a letter! It says that if we can find out what this picture is, we'll get rewarded with some big bucks!" Vector yelled excitedly, waking up Charmy, the youngest member of the Chaotix crew.

"Now, doesn't that sound familiar…?" Espio said quietly.

"Aw, Espio, you're too cautious! You need to learn to take risks!" At that, Espio's chest puffed out, an unhappy expression on his face.

"Too…cautious?"

"Whatever! Besides, it couldn't be Eggman again! He knows that we wouldn't fall for that trick again. Here, read this Espio, if it will put your mind to rest." Vector said, handing Espio the mysterious note. Espio read it, his yellow eyes scanning the contents of the page.

"Now, doesn't that look completely legit? You worry too much." Vector said condescendingly to Espio, as if he were talking to a child. Espio gave Vector a skeptical look.

"Whatever. You're the boss after all," said the chameleon, sitting down on a couch. Charmy yawned and rubbed his eyes. The bee flew over to Vector.

"What did I miss Vector? What's up?" Charmy said, ready to barrage Vector with more questions if the crocodile didn't respond. Vector rolled his eyes.

"If you would have listened to me the first time, you would have heard that we've got an assignment that will pay very well if we do the job right!" Vector summed up for Charmy. Charmy's eyes widened with excitement.

"We're gonna be rich! Won't we Vector, won't we?" Charmy gushed, buzzing around happily. Espio sighed and glanced up at the ceiling. _No one ever listens to me!_ He thought frustratedly.

Vector grinned at Charmy approvingly, patting the bee on his head. "Now _that_'s the attitude that I like to see!" the crocodile said.

"Yeah!" Charmy yelled, pumping his fist.

Espio stalked away from the loud croc and hyperactive bee. He moodily slumped down onto the couch that was placed next to the window of the building. As dim morning light filtered through the window, Espio couldn't help but worry that Team Chaotix was about to get pulled into something way over their heads.

**Tails' Workshop**

A bright flash of purple light woke Tails up. He groggily shook his head, and opened his sky blue eyes. Flickies were chirping and singing outside and bright sunshine came through the small window in the workshop's attic. Tails yawned and stretched out his arms, still feeling a sleepy bliss. "Now, let's see what Sonic's up to," Tails said to himself. He hopped out of his bed and trotted downstairs.

Sonic looked up and grinned cheerily at his friend's arrival. "Hey Tails! Want some breakfast?" Sonic said, flipping a very brown egg on a skillet. Tails winced at the smell the burnt egg was giving off.

"Um, I think I'll pass," Tails said cautiously. "So, did you notice a bright purple flash a couple minutes ago? It woke me up." Tails asked Sonic. Sonic had a sheepish expression on his face.

"Oh, sorry pal! That was me, transforming back to my normal self." Sonic said cheerfully, obviously glad to be back to normal. Sonic flipped the burning egg again, and it flew all the way up to the ceiling, where it stayed. Sonic stood bewildered, staring at the egg with his mouth wide open. "Y'know, how about we just go to a restaurant?" Sonic suggested with a laugh.

"That sounds good," Tails said, silently thanking the egg that was still hanging onto the ceiling. Although Tails was sure that Sonic was going to go to Uncle Chuck's Diner to have chili dogs _for breakfast_, Tails would rather eat a chili dog than take his chances with Sonic's less-than admirable cooking skills.

**Soleanna**

Shadow leaned against a light pole, taking in the early morning light. He crossed his arms, feeling bored. There wasn't much to do in the quiet city of Soleanna. Shadow had been posted there to find Sonic by G.U.N. It was an anonymous mission, so Shadow wasn't exactly sure _why_ G.U.N wanted Sonic. Its purpose was what he had pondered ever since he had let Sonic go his own way. Shadow frowned and stared at the rising sun, suddenly wondering about what exactly was up with Sonic. "So many mysteries, such little time…" Shadow muttered.

Although the black and red hedgehog didn't know it, he was being closely observed. "So, looks like we're going to meet again, Shadow the Hedgehog. Now, to proceed with initiating my new mimicry software." Neo Metal Sonic said with satisfaction. Dr. Eggman had installed some new software to Neo to increase his mimicry abilities. Hundreds of videos salvaged from destroyed robots that recorded Sonic's techniques and mannerisms. Neo suddenly flickered out of visibility, his image replaced by that of Sonic the Hedgehog. "This is gonna be good!" the Fake Sonic said, his voice a spot-on imitation of the real deal. He cracked his knuckles eagerly. Neo scrolled through the videos quickly, adding some finishing touches to his new form.

Shadow looked up, thinking he had heard something coming from one of the rooftops. "No, my ears must just be playing tricks on me." Shadow said to himself, still leaning against the light post. A pebble suddenly bounced off of the black hedgehog's head. "Hey! Who did that?!" Shadow yelled, slightly annoyed.

"Yo, Shadow!" Shadow turned to where the voice came from, and saw Sonic.

"Sonic? What are you doing here?" Shadow asked, interested.

"Oh, you know, running all over the world, fighting Eggman, the usual." Sonic replied, casually inspecting his gloves.

"You were just here though. Why did you need to come back? Eggman isn't here," Shadow said, not quite buying Sonic's alibi.

"Yeah, that's true…Maybe I came just to see if you can still race with the best of 'em!" Sonic said cockily.

"Oh, it's on!" Shadow said with a slight smirk. Finally, something to relieve his boredom!

The two hedgehogs lined up next to each other, with Sonic counting down. "Three...Two…One!" Sonic said, and the two hedgehogs shot off like rockets. They navigated the confusing streets of Soleanna with speed and ease.

Shadow had the early lead, skating slightly in front of Sonic. Sonic suddenly pulled ahead, a confident grin on his face. Shadow frowned, and sped up. "You know you're not going to win!" Sonic said. Shadow gave Sonic an "Oh, you really think so?" look. Shadow tried to go even faster, but Sonic dashed into his way.

"Hey!" Shadow yelled gruffly. His expression hardened in annoyance. This only seemed to amuse Sonic, who had begun running backwards. Shadow swiftly ran around the increasingly annoying blue hedgehog and smirked. The black and red hedgehog was beginning to have a large lead over Sonic, and Shadow wondered what was slowing his doppelganger down, when Sonic suddenly spin-dashed into his back! The race was over on that note, and Shadow stood up, his red eyes showing his anger.

"What's up with you, Sonic? You cheated!" Shadow yelled.

"What's up with _you_, Shadow? You're supposed to be the Ultimate Life Form. Hah! More like Ultimate Crybaby!" Sonic said with a bad-mannered expression on his face. Shadow looked confused. Sonic was acting very strange. _First, he cheated in a race, which he would never do! Second, he's calling me names! I mean, sure, we do have our "Faker" sessions, but "Ultimate Crybaby"? Something's not right here… _ Shadow thought.

"Hmph, it would take more than a cheater like you to trouble me! I'll show you that right now!" Shadow yelled. He jumped into the air and threw several Chaos Spears and his opponent.

_Perfect,_ Neo thought behind his Sonic cover-up. He quickly dodged the Chaos Spears and laughed mockingly. "Is that all you've got?" He asked Shadow, trying to further enrage him. Shadow glared at the person whom he thought was Sonic.

"Not hardly!" he spat. Shadow teleported behind Sonic, and was about to cuff him over the head when-

"Thank you, I do believe that's enough. I certainly did enjoy our time together, but I have all the information that I need." Neo said sarcastically, revealing his true form. He had caught Shadow with ease in his strong metal hands, and now he dropped the hedgehog to the ground with disdain. Without another word, the robot flew away, returning to his master's air fleet.

Shadow groaned and picked himself off of the ground. _What was that?_ Shadow wondered glumly. _And what was the point of this whole excursion? It was so strong! I have to warn Sonic!_ Shadow thought urgently, and then he slowed his thoughts down. "Sonic…wait a minute! That was the Metal Sonic that we all battled a while ago!" Shadow tapped his fingers on his chin. "I thought we had defeated that thing for good! This is bad…" Shadow said, and raced off, skating as fast as he could.


	10. The Final Chapter

Hello everyone.

It is with great sadness that I'm telling you this but… I'm discontinuing my story Return of the Werehog. I'm really sorry to all of you that read and enjoyed the story so far, but I just don't feel like I can finish it. It was poorly planned out, if at all. I basically just came up with every chapter on the fly, and I'm truly and deeply sorry that I'm not following through with it. To all the loyal readers of the story, thank you so much for the support throughout the long process of getting to here, and again, I'm really sorry. Since I had already written out most of a new chapter, I'll give it to you! Also, at the end I'll give you a summary of what would have happened.

3

**Flying**** High**

Tails and Sonic were enjoying their meal at Chuck's Diner. Tails had chosen a breakfast special of pancakes and eggs, while Sonic had chosen to eat, big surprise, chili dogs for breakfast. Sonic's uncle had given the "breakfast" to his nephew without much worry, just reminding the speedster that he would no longer be the "fastest thing alive" if he kept up that unhealthy diet. Sonic just laughed and continued to stuff his face. Tails couldn't help but roll his sky blue eyes at his friend.

"So Sonic," Tails said as the duo began to walk back home from Chuck's Diner.

"Yeah, Tails?" Sonic looked over at the fox.

"As you know, I've been tinkering with my new plane,"

"Uh-huh…?" Sonic grunted, willing for Tails to just spit it out. Tails could tell that he was taking too long. Sonic never did enjoy lengthy conversations. That is, unless he was the one making puns and laughing at his own jokes. Tails didn't mind though. It was just better to make your point and be done with it than going into all the boring details.

"Well, I think it's ready to go for a test run. Do you want to come with me?" Tails finished. Sonic grinned.

"Well of course! I'll run below you, 'kay?" Sonic said. Tails smiled and gave Sonic a thumbs up.

"Okay! You wait right here! I'll be back in a few minutes!" Tails said, and then flew off to the Workshop.

**Eggman's Airship**

Eggman was brooding. He leaned back far into his seat, a bad-tempered expression on his face.

"Uhm, boss?" Orbot started to ask nervously. Cubot was hiding behind his round counterpart.

"What?" Eggman asked, sounding annoyed.

"Uh, I think you should look up!" Orbot exclaimed, sounding truly frightened. Eggman looked up at the skylight. On it stood Shadow the Hedgehog with a dangerous expression on his face.

"Who's that?" Scratch asked loudly.

"That be Shadow, the Ultimate Life form!" Cubot trembled. "We're not on t' best terms currently," Eggman gave Cubot a strange look.

"So, now you have an Irish accent? I really need to fix that voice chip of yours… but not now. We obviously have more pressing issues currently! Arm the defense mechanisms! If Shadow's here to do some damage we're going to need everything we've got!" Eggman yelled. All of the helper robots scrambled to follow his orders, even though they could never hope to keep up with the speed of Eggman's orders.

Eggman glanced nervously up at the skylight and there was Shadow, looking right back down at him with his ruby colored eyes, smirking. Then, right before everyone's eyes, Shadow flickered out of visibility, and in his place was… Neo Metal Sonic! Eggman slapped his hand against his forehead. "I should've known! Well, what are you waiting for? Disarm the weapons! Let Metal Sonic in!" Once again, the robots scurried back to work, this time undoing everything that they had just done.

The skylight opened, and Neo Metal Sonic flew down, laughing with scorn at Eggman and his lackeys. "Heh, I really had you going there, didn't I? That was priceless." Neo said lightly, but the tone of his voice disagreed with the glare he was directing in the other's general direction.

Eggman stood up and tried to ignore his feelings of growing dislike for the robot. _As soon as we take care of Sonic… well, there won't be any need at all for a robot version of him, _Eggman thought with glee, suddenly discarding his other thoughts. "So, Metal Sonic. How did your mission go?" Eggman asked.

"It went exactly as planned. I have Shadow right where I want him, and I also was able to download a lot of data about Shadow, as I demonstrated just now." Neo decided to leave out the fact that he had revealed his true self to Shadow after the battle. That hadn't been part of the plan, but Neo just couldn't help himself. What could he say? He just loved to shock and scare people.

"Well then, good job." Eggman said, but he squinted carefully at the robot from behind his glasses. _Things are starting to fall apart…the few shreds of trust that we had for each other are disappearing. I need to finish this, and fast!_

**Somewhere above Mobius**

Rouge frowned to herself as she waited impatiently for Omega to catch up. Apparently, Omega's boosters _had_, to some extent at least, been busted after the long flight to Angel Island. That is, unless Omega was just being lazy. "Come _on_ Omega!" Rouge called back to her team mate.

"I _am_ on-coming, can you not see?" was Omega's reply. Rouge rolled her eyes and sighed with frustration. To calm herself down, Rouge looked down at the Chaos Emerald that she held in her hand. The dark purple gem glittered lightly as the sunlight played across it.

"Oh, you make it all worth it," Rouge crooned to the gem. Omega paused behind her.

"Excuse me? I did not know that you felt that way Rouge." said the startled and suddenly love struck robot. Rouge nearly stopped flying in shock.

"Omega!" Rouge cried in a disgusted tone. "I was _obviously_ talking to the gem!" Rouge said, and suddenly realized that her response was pretty weak. "Uhm, besides. I like the strong, silent type." Rouge said with a little grin.

"_Ooh_, I see." was Omega's response. After a brief pause, Omega said. "Even if you _did_ like me, I already have someone else. She can light anything on fire with just the flick of her hand!" Omega said, admiration in his voice. Rouge smirked. Omega loved anyone or anything that could cause mass destruction, so it was no surprise that he had a crush on a pyromaniac. The bat continued flying until she saw something in the distance.

Suddenly, Rouge tucked in her wings and took a steep dive, the wind rushing past her face. Rouge grinned. _This must be how it feels to run like Sonic!_ she thought, and then pulled her wings back out at the last minute before crashing headfirst into the dry and cracked ground.

"Huh?!" said the surprised figure that Rouge had just cut off.

"What's the matter hon'? Were you not expecting to see me out here?" Rouge asked. Omega landed on the ground behind Rouge with a heavy thud.

"So, looks like we've got the whole gang together again."

"Why don't you sound happier then, Shadow?" Rouge asked in a teasing way.

"Oh, I'm sorry. If you don't like it you can always feel free to leave." Shadow said, rolling his ruby colored eyes. Rouge frowned. _Something's up… _the bat agent thought.

**Chaotix Detective Agency**

Espio frowned and looked around where he was standing. He'd had a bad feeling the whole day, which probably was related to the mysterious letter Vector had gotten. Espio was always very perceptive, so he could see that there was something not quite right with the letter. Too bad the other two members of the Chaotix Detective Agency weren't willing to listen to Espio's thoughts.

"Hey Espio! Quit slacking around and get back to hanging these posters!" Espio was jolted from his musings by Vector's gruff voice. Espio sighed and then got back to work. Ever since they had gotten the letter containing a mysterious picture, Vector had been printing off "Wanted" posters by the hundreds, and then posting them on every available space in their town!

"Boss," Espio started to say tentatively.

"What is it, Espio?! Spit it out already!" Vector yelled, himself not being the kind of person who enjoyed suspense.

"Well, has it crossed your mind that we're probably going to have to spread out beyond this town? I-" Espio said, but was interrupted when Charmy flew up in front of his face. Giggling, the hyperactive bee shoved his last Wanted poster onto Espio's horn. Espio grimaced, and Charmy just started to laugh even harder.

"Espio's right, boss! We've covered EVERY spot here in town!" Charmy said through his chuckles. Espio gingerly removed the poster from his horn, still frowning. Vector frowned a little. His teammates _did_ have a good point.

"I know!" the croc shouted raucously. "We can ask Tails to fly a banner for us!"

"Oh, yes. I'm sure that Tails won't mind at all if we attach a huge banner to the back of one of his precious planes." Espio mumbled sarcastically.

"I know!" Vector said, completely oblivious to Espio's sarcasm. "He's a good kid, that Tails. Now, stay right here! I'll be back in a minute!" The hulking crocodile dashed back to the agency and came running back out with a large streamer of white cloth and some assorted paints and paintbrushes. Vector threw all of his items into the air, and then they all came falling back down, the banner laid itself out flat on the ground, and the paints landed in each of the Chaotix's hands. "Now," Vector began, "Let's get painting!"

**Tail's Workshop**

Tails rushed into his Workshop excitedly. He always enjoyed testing out his new airplane models, and he felt that this particular plane was special, because his best friend Sonic had helped him design it! The twin-tailed fox ran through the living room, snatching some goggles off a coffee table, and then went straight into his garage.

The young fox flipped the switch to the garage door opener, and then hopped into the cockpit of his plane. As the garage door started to open and spill sunlight dramatically over the young pilot, Tails turned on his engine and pulled his goggles over his head and eyes. The plane sped forward out of the garage, quickly pulling away from the ground into the bright blue sky. Tails enjoyed the rush of wind and exhilaration that he felt, doing a few daring flight maneuvers before turning in the direction of where Sonic was.

The ground rushed beneath the plane, quickly changing terrain from grassy to rocky desert to modern asphalt streets and concrete sidewalks. Tails pulled the plane up higher into the air, not wanting to crash into any city buildings. He saw a little blue streak below, so he concluded that Sonic had spotted and joined him.

Knowing that Sonic was always up for some friendly competition, Tails increased the speed of his plane, shooting forward _slightly_ faster than he had expected. His head was pushed back against his seat, but thankfully the young genius had anticipated such things, so he'd made sure the whole cockpit area of his plane was comfortable padded. Still feeling leery of the larger buildings concentrated in the city, Tails slowly turned his plane towards to outskirts of the city, making sure Sonic could tell where he was headed, and then shot forward again.

Below, Sonic chuckled to himself as Tails in his plane initiated one of their common 'Sonic vs. the Plane' races that they always enjoyed to have. Sonic almost yawned dramatically, and then realized that his theatrics would be wasted on Tails, who was not only hundreds of feet high in the air, but also inside a plane. So instead, the blue hedgehog picked up his pace, easily keeping up with the plane above, even though he was constantly having to dodge city folk who didn't realize they were caught in a supersonic race.

When Tails turned his plane towards the outskirts, Sonic thought breezily to himself, _Oh, I am so THERE! Way more room to run around, alright Tails! Good thinking buddy!_ He quickly turned around a street corner, his sneakers skidding from the friction of the sudden change of direction. Sonic laughed when he noticed some streak marks had been left on the sidewalk. The blue blur then poured on the speed, pulling ahead of Tails' plane and straight into the outskirts of town. Something Sonic saw on a telephone pole made his feet skid to a stop numbly and his heart skip a beat. _How on Mobius did _that_ get here?_ He asked himself silently, as he reached out and grabbed a "Wanted" poster that had a picture of **him** on it!

**Chaotix Detective Agency**

Vector and the rest of Team Chaotix were still working on their banner painting when they heard an annoying screeching noise from the corner and all looked up.

"Hey, whaddaya know, there's our old pal Sonic!" Vector crowed to his fellow detectives. Espio nodded thoughtfully, not paying any attention to Charmy who was busying himself by painting all over the purple chameleon.

"It appears that he has been disturbed by something," Espio noted, pointing out how distraught Sonic appeared. Sonic, apparently interrupted from his musings looked over at the Chaotix in surprise and quickly tried to put a new expression on his face.

"Well, if it isn't the Chaotix Crew," Sonic said in a wheedling tone with a cheesy grin on his face. Before Vector could correct Sonic's mistake in team name, the blue hedgehog had dashed over to the banner they were working on. "What's this? An arts and crafts project?" Sonic teased before he looked at it more closely. Shoddily glued onto the banner was an even larger picture of the Werehog. Sonic grimaced but quickly covered up his true feelings again. Again, before Vector, who was now fuming, could speak, Sonic asked, "What's the deal with these posters and stuff?" It was tough for Sonic to say, trying to act nonchalant as always when inside he was panicking. _What would happen if everyone knew?_ He asked himself worriedly, creasing his brow a little before smoothing it over quickly. Finally, Vector found that he was actually going to be able to reply.

"Super top-secret detective stuff! Why do you ask? Do you know this picture?" Vector asked rapid-fire. Sonic recoiled a little, sweat breaking out.

"Uh…Pfft of course not! Besides, I was the one asking a question, wasn't I?" Sonic recovered quickly. Vector frowned, disappointed.

That's all that was written! Here's what would have happened throughout the rest of the story:

Eggman would try to steal the rest of the Chaos Emeralds from Angel Island, but Knuckles scattered them. He warped over near where Cream lived, and Blaze and Cream would go to investigate. After meeting up with Knuckles, the three of them decide to go collect the rest of the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic and Tails try to cover up his hairy secret, but the Chaotix are suspicious, and decide to investigate Sonic. They secretly follow Sonic everywhere, until they see him transform in the night. Vector is faced with the decision of getting the cash or helping Sonic, and in the end he decides not to send the picture, but Neo Metal Sonic is watching, and after copying their information, he returns to Eggman. Next, Eggman ruins the Chaotix's business by discrediting them in the newspaper, and also reveals Sonic's secret to the world. Everyone is shocked, and Sonic feels utterly alone. His friends come together to help him though. Eggman is working on his final recycled robot, ready to reveal his ace in the hole. He uses the information that Neo Metal Sonic has been secretly collecting about Sonic and his friends, and at Neo's request, builds a fleet of shapeshifting robots like him. Team Dark are spying on them, so they find all this out, and go to warn Sonic. Meanwhile, Blaze, Cream, and Knuckles find the last Chais Emeralds after days of searching. Everyone meets up with Sonic, who is still feeling depressed. They try to encourage him, but he is seemingly inconsolable. Then, Eggman begins his attack, using a robot made of many previous final boss parts, and Sonic must go face him, even though it is almost night time. Everyone goes to help Sonic, and they have an epic battle with Eggman's robot, which they eventually overpower. However, it wasn't only them who were helping defeat Eggman. Neo Metal Sonic reveals himself and his squad of shapeshifters, and he reveals that he had betrayed Eggman once again, but this time he wasn't letting Sonic or his pesky friends get in the way. Blaze realizes that she should give Sonic the Chaos Emeralds, and runs over the give them to him, but is blocked by a robot doppelganger. Sonic smashes it, and thanks her, ready to transform into Super Sonic. However, as he transforms, the memory of his nightmare frightens him, and he fails to transform, not because of his fear, though. Because the night has come. He transforms into the Werehog, and takes on Neo Metal Sonic and his squad, everyone else joining in the fight against their uncanny look alikes. Finally, they defeat the robots, only Neo left, sparking at the joints and weak. He pleads to Sonic to not be a monster and let him go away forever, but Sonic bites the energy core out of the evil robot. He knew that there was no way Neo would just bow out peaceful, so he decided to act like what he looked like, a monster. After the battle, Sonic faints, incredibly weary. Tails and the others take Sonic back to his house, and he sleeps for days. When he finally wakes up, only Blaze is in there. She looks surprised to see him awake, and explains that everyone else was sleeping in. He had been asleep for three days! Sonic was astonished, but happy to know that Blaze was there for him. She tells him that she's figured out a way for her to return home, and she wanted to wait until he woke for her to return. She tells him goodbye, but then runs over and gives him a hug. Sonic smiles, enjoying the embrace, but then she lets go. Knuckles comes in groggily, and Tails and Amy too. They all are excited and happy to see Sonic awake again. Blaze smiles and ducks out of the room. Later that day, after eating and having nice talks, everyone heads outside to see Blaze off. Knuckles assists her with the chant for the Emeralds, and a portal opens. Blaze bids everyone farewell, but just before she goes through the portal, Sonic runs to her, and quick as a wink, kisses her. All Blaze can say is "Sonic! – " before she is teleported back to her dimension. Everyone gapes in surprise at Sonic, but he just smugly smiles, asking what was _their_ problem? That night, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy are the only ones left at the workshop. Sonic is fully prepared to transform like usual after the sun goes down, but nothing happens. Sonic is shocked, but the others smile knowingly. "About that Super transformation the other day…" Tails says, and explains to Sonic that the positive Chaos Emerald energy he received was enough to banished the negative energy from his body, but it just took some extra time, hence the three days of sleep. Sonic happily leans back in his seat, feeling like a huge weight has been lifted off of his shoulders. The last thing he says is "Hey, how about we go visit Spagonia tomorrow? I hear their having another fireworks festival!" He chuckles mischievously, and Amy, Knuckles, and Tails all just groan.

The END~!

So, again, I'm sorry I was never able to write all of this out, but I hope you enjoyed it while it lasted, and I hope you like the ending I had in mind! Maybe someday I'll re-write it, or write a new Sonic story, but as of now, I'm actually planning two new ORIGINAL stories!

THANK YOU FOR READING! 3


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